A man from Georgia has regained his freedom after he was placed under house arrest for an extended period without being formally charged with a crime.
In October 2020, Quintravious Nelson was arrested by South Fulton Police for an alleged aggravated assault involving a fight at a gas station where a gun was discharged. Despite no injuries occurring, Nelson consistently maintained that he was not present at the scene when the incident took place.
After spending several weeks in the Fulton County Detention Center, Nelson was granted bail by a judge. However, he was subjected to house arrest and required to wear an ankle monitor continuously, even while sleeping and bathing, for nearly three years. He was only permitted to leave his residence for medical appointments, court appearances, or work obligations. The monitoring device came with a monthly cost of $300.
Throughout this period, the Fulton County District Attorney’s office failed to present Nelson’s case to a grand jury, resulting in him never being officially charged with a crime.
“The facts of this case have been reviewed, and although there appears to be probable cause for the defendant’s arrest, the District Attorney has decided not to prosecute at this time,” stated Kenneth Hutcherson, an executive district attorney, in a document dated May 30, 2023.
Seven days later, Nelson learned of the district attorney’s decision, not through official notification but rather from a civil rights attorney who had reviewed the case at the county clerk’s office. “I burst into tears,” shared Quandria, Nelson’s mother. “I was incredibly grateful.”
Nelson represents just one of many individuals trapped within Georgia’s criminal justice system, unjustly unable to progress their cases for years, thereby violating their Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial.
The majority of these individuals are people of color and impoverished, lacking the means to afford legal representation. They suffer significant consequences without prosecutors having proven their guilt. In December, the chief superior court judge of Fulton County issued an order suspending defendants’ ability to request a speedy trial due to an overwhelming backlog of cases. This order is set to expire in early July.
According to Fulton County court records from last year, at least 13,787 individuals were arrested by the police for alleged felonies, booked into jail, and awaiting presentation of their cases to a grand jury by the district attorney’s office for potential indictment.
A report from the American Civil Liberties Union in 2022 estimated that 515 of these individuals had been detained in the county jail for 90 days or longer.
Earlier this year, Chief Justice Michael Boggs of the Georgia Supreme Court acknowledged the problem while addressing state lawmakers, but did not offer a clear solution. “Resolving the backlog could indeed take years,” Boggs stated during his State of the Judiciary address in March. He attributed the issue to various challenges within the state’s criminal justice system, such as shortages of public defenders and prosecutors, as well as the backlog caused by the temporary suspension of jury trials during the pandemic.
