Georgia builds system to compensate wrongfully convicted

Tamar Hallerman, Tribune News Service

Michael Woolfolk was exonerated after spending 19 years in prison for a shooting authorities later determined was self-defense. After serving nearly six years behind bars, Kelvin Bradley’s aggravated assault conviction was overturned and a judge ruled his actions during a 2011 repast were justified. Both metro Atlanta men could be eligible for compensation under a new state law that went into effect July 1. If they can prove their innocence before administrative law judges, Woolfolk and Bradley could, respectively, be entitled to upward of $1.35 million and $375,000 from the state of Georgia under the Wrongful Conviction and Incarceration Compensation Act. It’s money both men say they could use to get on their feet and jump-start their lives after years away from the workforce.

Under the statute, people who served prison time in Georgia for felonies they didn’t commit, had their convictions reversed or vacated, and were acquitted, pardoned or had their charges dismissed are entitled to $75,000 for each year they wrongfully spent behind bars. Those who unjustly served time on death row can claim $100,000 per year. In recent months, a relatively obscure office of state judges has been quietly working to build the infrastructure to implement the law. And while there’s palpable excitement from the advocates who have been pushing for years to standardise Georgia’s compensation rules, there are still many unanswered questions about how exactly the new system will run. Among the lingering questions: Just how many people will come forward with claims? How long will it take for the judges to begin considering requests? And how much will each case be relitigated as part of the review process, especially the less black-and-white ones that didn’t result in a formal exoneration?

Stakeholder groups are approaching the new system with cautious optimism. “This is a wonderful opportunity for Georgia to do the right thing by folks who have been wrongfully incarcerated and are innocent of the crimes that they were convicted of,” said Kristin Verrill, executive director of the Georgia Innocence Project, which spent years advocating for a law like this one.

Designing the system: All eyes are on the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings, or OSAH, which will consider the compensation claims. The administrative law judges there typically handle a wide array of cases involving state agencies, including driver’s license suspensions, special education disputes involving parents and school districts, and candidate qualification challenges ahead of elections. What OSAH doesn’t commonly consider are cases involving criminal law, though the judges do conduct some criminal background checks as part of their routine work. Lisa Boggs, deputy chief administrative law judge at OSAH, acknowledged in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that compensation cases are “definitely a new one for us.” But she insisted she and her colleagues are “very familiar with being able to kind of ramp up or ramp down depending on the caseload” and establish procedures for new types of cases.

She said her office has an internal group that has been meeting weekly to get ready for the new law. It has also met Georgia stakeholders and spoken with administrative law judges in other states that have standardized their compensation systems to discuss their procedures. “I’m confident that we will be prepared and ready to go,” Boggs said. Advocates say it’s hard to estimate how many wrongfully convicted people could apply for compensation. Under the new law, people have three years to file a claim after their conviction is overturned, though those with older cases have three years from the statute’s implementation to apply.

The University of Michigan’s National Registry of Exonerations includes 52 entries from Georgia, though some of those people were not formally exonerated, and others have previously received compensation from the state. It’s also possible others who have had their convictions overturned are not on the list, advocates said. Under the new process, it will be up to the wrongfully convicted and their attorneys to establish by a preponderance of evidence — in other words, that it’s more likely than not — they didn’t commit the crime of which they were convicted or any lesser offense. Although for some people who have been formally exonerated or pardoned that won’t be too hard a lift, for those who merely weren’t retried, it could be more difficult to prove. The local district attorney who prosecuted the case and the state attorney general’s office are permitted to get involved in the process either in support or opposition to the compensation claim.

Key players say they will be closely watching the first few applications that move through the system. “I anticipate the first few cases will absolutely be a learning process for everyone involved,” said Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. “We’re starting from scratch. I’m sure there will be times when the court runs into issues that we’re not anticipating and that parties on both sides will take a step back and say ‘OK, wait a minute, how do we deal with this particular issue?’”

Old system: Advocates and attorneys for the wrongfully convicted agree on at least one thing. “I don’t think it could be more cumbersome than the old process,” said Leigh Schrope, a post-conviction and appellate attorney who represents Woolfolk. Before the wrongful conviction law passed, people seeking compensation were required to seek out an individual appropriation from the state. That meant navigating the byzantine, highly politicised world of the General Assembly and a little-known board at the secretary of state’s office that evaluates claims against state agencies. Over the years, that led to wildly inconsistent awards — if they were granted at all. For example, Willie Otis “Pete” Williams, who spent more than 21 years in prison after being convicted of rape, kidnapping and other charges in Sandy Springs, was compensated $1.2 million by the General Assembly. But John Jerome White, a man who was convicted of rape, aggravated assault, burglary and other charges in Meriwether County and served more than 22 years in prison, was given $500,000 by the state. Others walked away empty-handed. In the past several years, all the claims that went before the Legislature passed the House but ultimately died in the Senate as some GOP lawmakers questioned the true innocence of the people applying for compensation.

So it was a surprise when, as this spring’s legislative session was coming to a close, language for a wrongful conviction bill was added to an unrelated measure that could allow President Donald Trump to collect legal fees in the Fulton County election interference case.

Attorneys who have navigated the legislative system before for clients are happy to have a more consistent process — one that seeks to remove, or at least limit, the role of politics from the process. “It’s massive,” said Andrew Fleischman, an appellate attorney who has multiple clients who plan to seek compensation from OSAH. “You’ve got a clear standard.”

‘Put me at ease’ Woolfolk and his attorney, Schrope, tried unsuccessfully for three years to petition the Legislature for compensation but were stymied in the state Senate. Woolfolk was 23 years old when he was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of felony murder for the 2002 shooting death of a woman following an argument in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh neighbourhood.

In 2021, the Fulton County district attorney’s then-new Conviction Integrity Unit called for a new trial for Woolfolk and his co-defendant after new testimony showed the two men were acting in self-defense. They were eventually exonerated. Woolfolk, now in his mid-40s, said in an interview he’s optimistic about the new compensation system.