ATLANTA – Efforts to improve Georgia’s system for compensating individuals wrongly convicted of crimes faced a near-death experience but ultimately found a lifeline. The initiative was included in a broader bill that also addresses the potential reimbursement of legal fees for former President Donald Trump and his associates following their indictment related to the attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
The combined bill, Senate Bill 244, won final approval Friday, the last day of Georgia’s legislative session.
Should Republican Governor Brian Kemp approve the bill, it would allow defendants in criminal cases to recover their legal fees in situations where a prosecutor is disqualified, leading to the case’s dismissal. Additionally, the bill would introduce a state statute mandating that individuals who have been wrongfully convicted receive $75,000 per year of incarceration if they can demonstrate their innocence of the crime or any lesser offense.
Georgia is among the 12 states lacking a law that compensates those who have been wrongly convicted, as highlighted in an analysis by the Georgia Innocence Project. Currently, the only way for individuals to receive compensation is for a legislator to propose a bill for approval, a process known for being entangled in politics and often resulting in individuals being left without the financial support they deserve, as seen in the cases of five individuals who attempted to seek compensation this year.
The original half of the bill has a different backstory. Trump and 18 codefendants were indicted in Fulton County in August 2023. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from the case by a state appeals court based on a romantic relationship she had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom Willis hired to lead the case.
This is what led state Sen. Brandon Beach, an Alpharetta Republican, to bring forward the measure. He was recently named treasurer of the United States by Trump after years of vociferous support for the president.
“Punitive politics”
The measure passed the Senate 35-18 with all Republicans voting yes. The three highest-ranking Democrats crossed over to vote yes — House Minority Leader Harold Jones II of Augusta House Democratic Caucus Chair Sen. Elena Parent of Atlanta and House Democratic Whip Kim Jackson of Stone Mountain.
But many Democrats were not on board.
“I understand some people have allegiance to the president and some people voted for him, and that’s their right. But do not force my constituents to pay his legal fees,” Atlanta Democrat state Sen. RaShaun Kemp said.
Atlanta Democrat state Rep. Shea Roberts on Wednesday called the bill a “disgusting display of punitive politics.” The bill passed 103-61 in the House.
“It puts legislators and voters in a moral straitjacket,” Roberts said. “If you want to support justice for the wrongfully convicted, you also have to support protecting powerful politicians from accountability. That’s not leadership, that’s hostage-taking.”
A long-standing push
The bill’s passage came the day after Republican Senate Majority Whip Randy Robertson held a four hour committee meeting at 6 a.m. on a measure to compensate five people whose convictions were overturned after years of incarceration. By then, it was too late for that proposal to get a vote.
Robertson, a former sheriff’s deputy, has been the lead opponent against past measures to compensate people and to establish a law to let legal experts make that decision instead of legislators.
People seeking compensation this year have had convictions overturned based on findings such as DNA evidence, legal and police errors and the discovery of new evidence indicating they did not commit the crime they were incarcerated for.
But Robertson said people set free due to wrongful convictions aren’t necessarily innocent because convictions may be overturned due to technical errors. He also had doubts about whether some of the people seeking compensation this year were innocent. Still, he said the current method is flawed, and he decided to support this year’s bill to take the compensation process out of the legislature’s hand.
Republican sponsor state Rep. Katie Dempsey of Rome said the bill will let the wrongfully convicted “have a true chance, that is not a retrial from legislators.”
Democratic Rep. Scott Holcomb, who has championed the wrongful compensation bill for years, begged Democrats in both chambers to vote for a measure he called one of the few “incredibly consequential” bills he worked on.
“There isn’t a person alive who would trade the money that these individuals are receiving for what happened to them in terms of being locked up in our state’s prisons, for usually decades of their lives, for something they didn’t do,” he said Friday.
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Associated Press reporter Jeff Amy contributed.
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Charlotte Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.
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