We have more EXCITING NEWS in the Devonia Inman case!
Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the Georgia State Attorney General’s efforts to stop Devonia Inman’s habeas case from proceeding to a hearing on the merits. Additionally, Presiding Justice Nahmias and Chief Justice Melton issued extraordinary concurring opinions reminding prosecutors to “ensure that justice is being served” and urging the AG’s office to “personally and fully review” the case to decide “whether it is really in the interest of justice” for the State of Georgia to “continue resisting Inman’s efforts to obtain a new trial.”
Justice Nahmias noted that he has “grave doubts” about the trial court’s order denying Inman’s original Extraordinary Motion for New Trial several years ago, based upon post-conviction DNA testing results that implicated Hercules Brown rather than Devonia Inman. He explained that while he could not find a way for the Georgia Supreme Court to correct that erroneous decision now, “this Court is not the only source of justice in this State. Indeed, judges are often obligated to enforce procedural rules, and we often must defer to discretionary decisions made by prosecutors. Prosecutors, however, may always exercise their discretion to seek justice – to do the right thing.”
It is what GIP has been saying for years about the criminal legal system in Georgia:
Devonia Inman is serving a death in prison sentence despite very compelling evidence of his innocence, including post-conviction DNA testing that implicates a different man. Thanks to yesterday’s decision, the path remains clear for Devonia to obtain relief in the habeas court.
Meanwhile, we welcome the reminder from Georgia’s highest court that a prosecutor’s job involves discretion and justice: discretion whether and how to prosecute crimes, discretion to fight to uphold convictions, and discretion to recognize when an injustice has occurred, coupled with the power to rectify that injustice. There is nothing that requires the Attorney General’s Office to fight every post-conviction case irrespective of their own assessment of truth, integrity, justice and innocence.
As Justice Nahmias noted, “Everyone involved in our criminal justice system should dread the conviction and incarceration of innocent people.”
Indeed, when the dreaded happens and an innocent person is wrongfully convicted and imprisoned, the discretion becomes an obligation. The American Bar Association tells prosecutors their ethical obligations in such situations:
Check out yesterday’s Georgia Supreme Court decision here.
Here is an Atlanta Journal Constitution article about the decision, and a Daily Report article.
Devonia is represented in his habeas litigation by our friends Tom Reilly, Tiffany Bracewell, and Majda Muhic at Troutman Sanders. Georgia Innocence Project and attorneys Knox Dobbins and Jason Stone secured the post-conviction DNA testing, argued the Extraordinary Motion for New Trial, and filed the unsuccessful Application for Discretionary Appeal referenced by Justice Nahmias.
Devonia’s story of wrongful conviction is the subject of two podcasts: Breakdown, Season 4 from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Murderville from the Intercept.
Check out our July 2019 blog post for more background information about this fascinating and tragic case.
I just got through listening to the Podcast Murderville. This is now the 2nd Podcast I’ve heard now, where the GBI was the lead investigators on a murder case in a small town in GA. The first one went unsolved for a decade before a Podcast was created and got the world talking about it again, and this one was just a gross display of shotty police work. I don’t know what is going on down there, but there is something seriously wrong with these cases being mishandled and people being wrongly accused, or having crimes covered up for years and years because of so much corruption going on. That an untrained, just a regular person, doing a story, can just show up in a town where there was a murder, start talking to family of the victim, people she was close to, people she was last seen with, even the crooked detectives supposedly working on a case. Start talking about it on a Podcast, and all of a sudden, a murder that has gone unsolved for more than a decade, the GBI announces they’ve arrested someone. Someone that nobody suspected or ever mentioned! Just like this case, this poor guy has paid so much already, for something he OBVIOUSLY didn’t do! But again, GBI didn’t care when they were being told it was someone else at the time of his arrest! Nor does the prosecution or the GA courts care now. It should NEVER have gone this far!! The movie Mercy, this stuff has been going on forever down there! WILL IT EVER STOP?!?!?!?