By Belen Avelar
ATLANTA, GA – A recent Twitter thread by lawyer Andrew Fleischman has brought attention to what is being called the injustice that has been occurring to Fulton County Jail inmates who are being incarcerated and held in jail without trial or without indictment for years, violating Georgia’s speedy trial requirements.
According to Fleischman’s law firm’s website, he has handled dozens of appeals since 2011, “arguing in front of the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Georgia, defending people incarcerated by securing new trials and helping in reducing their sentences and four entries on the National Registry of Exoneration.”
In the state of Georgia, “the law requires that a person in jail must be provided bail or indicted within 90 days of arrest,” as stated in the Twitter thread. When a person is indicted, they have the right to demand a speedy trial, and according to Fleischman, in Fulton County that means a person can get a trial in four to six months.
As a result, according to data reports, “515 people or 17.6% of people held in Fulton County jail have been in custody for more than 90 days without indictment.”
In addition, “83 people had been held in custody for more than one year without indictment and seven people who were held for over two years without indictment,” as noted in Fleischman’s Twitter thread, adding the jail system becomes overcrowded because of the high volume of people being detained in jail without proper speedy trials.
Fleischman stated the “order from the Chief Judge certifies that Fulton County currently has 18,000 outstanding felony cases.”
According to Exhibit A Certification, “the pending criminal case volume of unindicted felony cases totals 13,787 and the combined total of both unindicted and indicted felony criminal matters is 18,014.
Exhibit A Certification stated, “Our efforts to work through the backlog of untried criminal cases requires courtroom space beyond our current capacity” In addition, they mentioned that since they are the largest and busiest Court in their state, the Superior Court of Fulton County “continues to face space and security limitations as the transport and holding of inmates brought to the Courthouse.”
Fleischman, who works on behalf of the wrongfully or unfairly convicted, said, “But y’all, you can come down to Fulton Superior on any given week, and it is not full of cases being tried.”
This brings a level of concern in the criminal justice system on whether Fulton County is making efforts to take in cases and minimize the number of people being held, he said, noting, “Jail is a dangerous place to be in, and it’s worse when you have people who are being held without knowing if they have actually done anything wrong.”
Fleischman added, “The state has an obligation—Constitutional and moral principles to allow people the right to a fair trial and be presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
