Georgia Death Row Inmate Loses PTSD Evidence-Based Challenge

A death row inmate convicted of murdering his estranged father’s girlfriend to steal his truck won’t be resentenced after the Eleventh Circuit found no reasonable probability that evidence of his childhood abuse and neglect would have changed the outcome of his sentence.

James A. Lee argued that his defense counsel provided ineffective assistance when he failed to present evidence that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the murder caused by the “repeated and savage abuse” he suffered at the hands of his mother.

Georgia Supreme Court’s decision that the combined weight of Lee’s mitigating evidence ...