Maurice Jimmerson, a Georgia man who languished in prison awaiting trial for more than a decade, has finally been released. Jimmerson has been in prison since 2013 after a series of bureaucratic hurdles prevented him from receiving a speedy trial.
Jimmerson was one of five people arrested by police in Albany, Georgia, on suspicion of committing a double murder in 2013. Two of Jimmerson’s co-defendants were tried and acquitted in 2017, but Jimmerson himself remains behind bars.
It’s not entirely clear why Jimmerson spent so long in prison. Last year, Gregory Edwards, the Dougherty County district attorney, said Atlanta News First that the delay was attributable to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the courthouse flood in 2021 and a judge’s earlier decision to try Jimmerson and his co-defendants separately.
To make matters worse, Jimmerson was left without an attorney to represent him for more than eight months after his public defender asked to be released from Jimmerson’s case so he could travel frequently to seek medical care for his infant daughter.
Jimmerson finally got a new lawyer last June after criminal defense attorney Andrew Fleischman saw local news coverage of Jimmerson’s case and decided to intervene pro bono. Jimmerson finally got a trial in July 2023, but it ended in a hung jury.
“There’s talk of taking hostages from other countries like North Korea or Iran,” Fleischman said Reason in June. “And the average time is six years. We’re talking about those countries that have failed puppet justice systems without any expectation of due process. Yet we have Americans in this country waiting 10 years for the opportunity to force the state to prove own thesis. And this for me is scandalous.”
With a new team of the lawyers, Jimmerson negotiated his release as part of a plea deal. Although Jimmerson continues to maintain his innocence, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and possession of a firearm and was sentenced to 30 years of probation, with 11 years to serve. He was released Wednesday afternoon.
Second Atlanta news firstJimmerson’s pretrial detention is likely among the longest in U.S. history.
“We should not punish people before they have been convicted of a crime” She said Fleischmann. “Indicting someone is simply telling 16 to 22 strangers a story for which there is no rebuttal…And holding someone for 10 years just for that story is a violation of due process.”