Blog


Eyewitness Misidentification and Wrongful Convictions
“There is almost nothing more convincing than a live human being who takes the stand, points a finger at the ...
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In Memory of Calvin C. Johnson Jr.
It is with both deep sadness and many warm memories that we share the news of the passing of our ...
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Joey Watkins Granted Bond
Joey Watkins embraces his parents immediately after being released from Floyd County Jail We wanted to share some good news ...
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Joey Watkins: One Step Closer to Freedom
On December 20th, the Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously affirmed Habeas relief for Joey Watkins. This favorable opinion comes after ...
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GA SUPREME COURT UNANIMOUSLY AFFIRMS HABEAS RELIEF FOR JOEY WATKINS
Convicted of murder in Floyd County in 2001, Watkins has maintained his innocence from the beginning and gained national attention ...
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Lee Clark Exonerated After More Than 25 Years
Lee Clark (right) embraces family and friends immediately after his release from Floyd County Jail. Lee Clark Exonerated After More ...
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“Bonded by Innocence, Together in Freedom” Exhibition
The exhibition will be housed in the lobby of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum through the end of ...
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In Memory of Page Pate
The Georgia Innocence Project family is heartbroken at the passing of our dear friend, colleague, and board member Page Pate ...
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GA Supreme Court to hear Oral Arguments for the Joey Watkins’ Case on October 4th, 2022
We now have a date set for oral arguments in Joey Watkins’ case. On October 4th, 2022, Joey’s lawyers from ...
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Joey Watkins’ Case Updates
January 2023 Joey’s bond hearing took the morning of January 3rd, 2023, before Floyd County Superior Court Judge Bryan Johnson. ...
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The 50 For 50 Freedom Run
Columbus woman runs 50 miles on her 50th Birthday to raise money for GIP Casey Geringer, Johnny Gates, and supporters ...
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Fourth of July 2022
Fourth of July This July 4th, we echo the sentiments of the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Editorial Board from two days ...
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Juneteenth 2022
Juneteenth 2022 This week we reflect on and celebrate the resilience and determination of Black Americans as the GIP office ...
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Georgia Supreme Court Adopts Rule to Hold Prosecutors Accountable for Misconduct
Georgia Supreme Court Adopts Rule to Hold Prosecutors Accountable for Misconduct “The primary duty of the prosecutor is to seek ...
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Georgia Attorney General’s Office Files Appeal in Joey Watkins Case
Georgia Attorney General’s Office Files Appeal in Joey Watkins Case Yesterday we received the disappointing news that the Georgia Attorney ...
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April 25th is National DNA Day
April 25th is National DNA Day Today is National DNA Day, which commemorates the completion of the Human Genome Project ...
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Joey Watkins’ Habeas Petition Granted
I am BEYOND thrilled to share with you that after years of litigation and a 3-day hearing in February/March, Walker ...
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It’s Time for Georgia to Pass a Law to Compensate the Wrongfully Convicted
It’s Time for Georgia to Pass a Law to Compensate the Wrongfully Convicted Many people think that the nightmare of ...
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Beneath the Statistics: The Structural and Systemic Causes of Our Wrongful Conviction Problem
Beneath the Statistics: The Structural and Systemic Causes of Our Wrongful Conviction Problem The statistics related to wrongful convictions, and ...
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Devonia Inman Exonerated After 23 Years of Wrongful Imprisonment
Twenty three years after he was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, almost eight years after a court ...
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Court Grants Devonia Inman’s Habeas Corpus Petition!
Great News! A Chattooga County Superior Court Judge has granted Devonia Inman’s habeas corpus petition, finding that he was wrongfully ...
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GIP Closes Out 2-Year Alabama Fellowship
Professor LaJuana Davis and GIP Attorney Meagan Hurley GIP Closes Out 2-Year Alabama Fellowship We recently had a big celebration ...
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Wrongful Conviction Factors
Kerry Robinson was exonerated in January 2020 Wrongful Conviction Factors A wrongful conviction is the conviction of an innocent person ...
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The Death Penalty: Unfixable, Unjustly Applied, and Regularly Used as a Tool to Convict the Innocent
(Image: AP Photo/Savannah Morning News) The Death Penalty: Unfixable, Unjustly Applied, and Regularly Used as a Tool to Convict the ...
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Meet the Legal Team
Meet the GIP Legal Team Our staff is at the heart of what we do. Our ability to help wrongly ...
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Justice Requires Meaningful Oversight and Accountability of Prosecutors
Justice Requires Meaningful Oversight and Accountability of Prosecutors Last week, former District Attorney Jackie Johnson was criminally indicted on charges ...
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Ron Jacobsen Officially Exonerated After 30 Years of Wrongful Imprisonment
Ron Jacobsen Officially Exonerated After 30 Years of Wrongful Imprisonment We are thrilled to announce that this week Ron Jacobsen ...
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Dennis Perry Exonerated After 20 Years of Wrongful Imprisonment
Dennis Perry Exonerated After 20 Years of Wrongful Imprisonment After more than 20 years behind bars, and just over one ...
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Why is it so hard to right a wrong in Georgia?
Why is it so hard to right a wrong in Georgia? “Justice, not victory, is our chief goal.” So say ...
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First Father’s Day (Again)
First Father’s Day (Again) Kerry Robinson (right) and his son KyeSean walk side by side on the prison lawn, moments ...
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Terry Talley Exonerated in 4 Cases From 1981
Terry upon walking out of prison after nearly 40 years of wrongful imprisonment. After nearly 40 years in prison for ...
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Judge Orders New Trial in Dennis Perry Case
Press Release – July 17, 2020 JUDGE ORDERS NEW TRIAL AFTER TWENTY YEARS FOR MAN CONVICTED IN 1985 DOUBLE MURDER ...
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Georgia Moves to Slash Public Defender’s Appellate Division
We Need Your Voice: Georgia Moves to Slash Public Defender’s Appellate Division Georgians are constitutionally entitled to effective counsel in ...
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Juneteenth 2020: We Have Work to Do
Juneteenth 2020: We Have Work to Do (Credit: Legal Defense Fund on Twitter) Almost one hundred years after bombs burst ...
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GIP Statement on George Floyd
GIP Statement on the Killing of George Floyd Credit: CC George Livingston/Flickr. As we work to free Georgia’s wrongfully convicted, ...
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GIP’s Statement on the Ahmaud Arbery Killing
Solidarity With Ahmaud Arbery On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old, unarmed Black man, was shot and killed in ...
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World DNA Day
World DNA Day Help Solve Crimes and Free Georgia’s Imprisoned Innocent Today is World DNA Day. 100% of any donation ...
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GIP Update Regarding COVID-19 Impacts
On March 13th, as Georgia was undertaking dramatic steps to stem the tide of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Georgia ...
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Georgia Supreme Court Rules in Favor of GIP Client Johnny Lee Gates!
Georgia Supreme Court Rules in Favor of GIP Client Johnny Lee Gates! Johnny Lee Gates has spent 43 years imprisoned ...
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Georgia Supreme Court Rules in Favor of GIP Client Joey Watkins!
Georgia Supreme Court Rules in Favor of GIP Client Joey Watkins! Joey Watkins was convicted in 2001 of a murder ...
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GIP Client Kerry Robinson Exonerated After Nearly 18 Years in Prison
GIP Client Kerry Robinson Exonerated After Nearly 18 Years in Prison Kerry Robinson Walks Out of Prison a Free Man ...
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OUR TOP TEN REASONS TO BE THANKFUL – 2019
Thanks for Coach Pierce and the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks! Atlanta Hawks Head Coach Lloyd Pierce is passionate about correcting and ...
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Wrongful Conviction Day 2019
TODAY, Wednesday, October 2nd, is Wrongful Conviction Day – the annual international observance dedicated to ending wrongful convictions and highlighting ...
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September 2019 Devonia Inman Case Update
We have more EXCITING NEWS in the Devonia Inman case! Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the Georgia State Attorney ...
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Update on the Devonia Inman Case
In so many post-conviction innocence cases the biggest hurdle we face comes from the State successfully arguing: “Innocence does not ...
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Update on Joey Watkins Case: Part III
Last month we shared a two-part update on the Joey Watkins case. Part I detailed Joey’s innocence and how previous ...
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Update on Joey Watkins Case: Part II
Last week, in a two-sentence decision, the powers that be again turned a blind eye to Joey Watkins’ quest for ...
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June 2019 Update on Joey Watkins Case: Part I
Joey Watkins is innocent. You don’t have to take our word for it. Take the word of Dr. Paul Steffes, ...
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Court Orders New Trial for Johnny Lee Gates
I am thrilled to report that a Muscogee County Court recently ordered that our client Johnny Lee Gates is entitled ...
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OUR TOP TEN REASONS TO BE THANKFUL
Thanks for TEN. Because of your wonderful generosity, GIP now has TEN employees – including two new staff attorneys and ...
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Wrongful Conviction Day 2018
To most Americans, the scene is a familiar one: a person walks down the austere stone steps of a courthouse ...
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When the State Loses or Destroys Key Evidence
When The State Loses Or Destroys Key Evidence... This week’s Undisclosed episode - “Mix Tape” - focuses on lost evidence ...
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College Intern Q&A with Ashli McBride
Ashli McBride, Junior at Georgia State University What did you learn about wrongful convictions and innocence work throughout the course of ...
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Race and Wrongful Conviction
RACE AND WRONGFUL CONVICTION Muscogee County prosecutor's tally of jurors' race in late 1970s death penalty trial. In a few ...
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October 2nd – Wrongful Conviction Day
Today, October 2nd is Wrongful Conviction Day, a day to spread awareness about the causes of false convictions and to ...
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Joey Watkins / Undisclosed update: Trial Tapes Litigation
Remember during Season 2 of Undisclosed how you could listen to Mark Free’s trial audio, but every time the Undisclosed team ...
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How Alabama’s law on judicial override increases risk of executing the innocent
How Alabama’s law on judicial override increases risk of executing the innocent Two of the many great lawyers at the ...
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An Undisclosed Adventure…and Cake
It has been an exciting and action-packed summer for the Georgia Innocence Project. As we continue to work hard on ...
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GIP Client May Die In Prison Despite DNA Evidence Proving Innocence
ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION February 29, 2016 Ga ...
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A Record # of Exonerations in 2015, Including 2 GA Cases
From Aimee Maxwell I want to interrupt my previously scheduled blog post about the Googe exoneration to discuss the report ...
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Investigating a CODIS hit
From Aimee Maxwell In my last blog entry I talked about CODIS hits. Quick reminder – CODIS hits are cases ...
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What is CODIS and how can it identify innocence claims?
From Aimee Maxwell, GIP Executive Director First, sorry I’ve been MIA. Our office renovation is almost complete plus I received ...
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A prosecutor, a scientist and a criminal defense lawyer walk into a bar….
Aimee Maxwell, Executive Director No, that’s not really how we created our groundbreaking partnership with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ...
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In response to last week’s AJC article about our federal grant
From Aimee Maxwell, Executive Director Last Thursday I was driving to work, looking forward to a fantastic day. That afternoon ...
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GIP Client Wins Appeal
GIP has been working on Paul Tyner since 2003. In fact, he is case number 183. During our investigation we ...
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GIP Exonerates Another Person
Something to Celebrate! GIP Exonerates Another Georgia Man Through a first-in-the-nation initiative launched by the Georgia Innocence Project, we have ...
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New Eyewitness Bill
2/23/2015 Today at the Georgia Legislature The Senate non-civil judiciary committee will be discussing SB 94, a bill to reform ...
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Interns – We Can’t Survive Without Them
Interns – They are the best and, sometimes, the worst thing about being Executive Director of the Georgia Innocence Project ...
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Bon Voyage to a Great Volunteer.
This past weekend, Melissa and I attended a going-away party for one of our volunteers, Apryl Davis. Apryl is joining ...
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Holiday Cards Inspire GIP
We want to share some holiday messages from our clients. We are so touched by all of these letters and ...
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