Timothy Johnson was acquit­ted of mur­der charges and released from prison in Georgia on December 5, twen­ty-nine years after being charged with a mur­der and rob­bery at a con­ve­nience store. Johnson had orig­i­nal­ly pled guilty to the crimes in exchange for the pros­e­cu­tion’s agree­ment not to seek the death penal­ty. The Georgia Supreme Court over­turned his con­vic­tion in 2006 because he was not prop­er­ly informed of his con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tion against self-incrim­i­na­tion and his right to con­front wit­ness­es against him. The jury delib­er­at­ed for only about an hour before ren­der­ing the acquit­tal. His fam­i­ly greet­ed him upon his release. ​“My heart is over­whelmed for him,” said his uncle, Willie Wilson. ​“I’m just elated.”

(B. Purser, ​“After 29 years in jail, Timothy Johnson is free,” Macon Telegraph, December 6, 2013). See Innocence and Arbitrariness. The case illus­trates the dan­ger of using the death penal­ty as a plea-bar­gain­ing incen­tive. Defendants some­times plead guilty to a crime they did not com­mit in order to avoid the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a death sentence.

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