A decade after Georgia leg­is­la­tors estab­lished the sen­tenc­ing option of life in prison with­out parole, the num­ber of Georgia defen­dants sen­tenced to death has dropped from an annu­al aver­age of 10 to 4 or few­er each year. The decline is the result of jurors opt­ing to sen­tence defen­dants to life with­out parole and plea bar­gains in cap­i­tal cas­es. District Attorney J. Tom Morgan not­ed that life with­out parole is in effect a death sen­tence: ​“It takes a lit­tle bit longer, but it is more cer­tain [because of appeals of death sen­tences].” Prosecutors also indi­cat­ed that it allows divid­ed juries to agree on a ver­dict. Over the past 10 years, 369 peo­ple in Georgia have been sen­tenced to life with­out parole, and 162 of them plead­ed guilty. In DeKalb County, where jurors have not issued a death sen­tence since life with­out parole became a sen­tenc­ing option in 1963, Morgan says that jurors are choos­ing the alter­na­tive sen­tence because of lin­ger­ing doubts that an inno­cent per­son may be exe­cut­ed. Michael Mears, the new head of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, point­ed to anoth­er ben­e­fit of life with­out parole sen­tences: they are sig­nif­i­cant­ly less expen­sive than the death penal­ty. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 28, 2003). See Life Without Parole; DPIC’s 2003 Year End Report.

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