Justin McCarroll

The Project

Justin (he/him/his) will provide direct legal representation, outreach, and policy advocacy for individuals sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) in Georgia.

Over the last 20 years, the number of individuals sentenced to life without parole in Georgia has more than quintupled. Georgia also has one of the most extreme racial disparities in LWOP sentencing, with Black prisoners making up 75% of Georgia’s LWOP population. Once sentenced, a person is given just one appeal. Beyond that, the defendant—who is usually indigent—must somehow secure resources or represent themselves for any post-conviction proceedings. This means that indigent people in non-capital cases have no one to represent them, even in cases of grave injustice. Justin’s project will serve as a vital first step to providing meaningful representation for people facing life without parole, which has been described as a “silent execution.”

Fellowship Plans

During his Fellowship, Justin will represent people sentenced to life without parole in their habeas proceedings by implementing litigation and advocacy tactics from the Georgia Resource Center’s capital casework. He will develop resources and conduct trainings to establish a team of student volunteers who will assist in identifying cases with strong claims of post-conviction relief. Additionally, he will seek to form a broad-based coalition between incarcerated people, lawyers, community advocates, and other stakeholders to support the litigation challenges and advocate to end Georgia’s mandatory application of LWOP for second-time offenders of certain felonies.