Couple imprisoned for baby’s death eligible for state payout, judge says

A former couple that spent more than 12 years in prison for the death of their newborn daughter is eligible to be paid by the state under Georgia’s new wrongful conviction compensation law, an administrative law judge has determined.

In a 41-page opinion that made extensive factual findings, Judge Ronit Walker of the Office of State Administrative Hearings ruled that Ashley Jordan and Albert Debelbot proved they did not murder their three-day-old daughter in 2008.

“In accordance with the foregoing findings of fact and conclusions of law, the undersigned finds that the Claimants have met their burden to prove, by the preponderance of the evidence, that they are eligible for compensation under the Wrongful Conviction and Incarceration Act,” Walker wrote in the opinion released late Wednesday.

Jordan and Debelbot were the subjects of the 11th season of Breakdown, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s award-winning true crime podcast. “Three Days in May” chronicled how deep-rooted biases in the criminal justice system led to devastating consequences for Jordan and Debelbot after the death of their daughter, McKenzy.

Atlanta attorney Andrew Fleischman, who is representing Jordan and Debelbot, called the decision “a wonderful result that came from dozens of people giving their time and expertise freely for a good cause.” He said he expects both Jordan and Debelbot will ultimately “be fairly compensated for this wrongful conviction.”

Prosecutors from the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit — which includes the city of Columbus, where Jordan and Debelbot were living when McKenzy died — fiercely contested their compensation claims. The DA’s office said it plans to appeal the ruling.

Under the state’s wrongful conviction law that went on the books last summer, Jordan and Debelbot could each be entitled to roughly $900,000, along with attorneys’ fees. The payout amount will be determined by the judge in the weeks ahead.

Long legal saga

An Army couple stationed at Fort Benning, Jordan and Debelbot were each convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2009.

The prosecution’s case rested largely on the testimony of the state medical examiner who conducted McKenzy’s autopsy. She said that based on what she saw and information from detectives who didn’t identify any plausible accidents, McKenzy likely died of blunt force trauma to the head. While the DA’s office couldn’t prove definitively that Debelbot or Jordan had hurt McKenzy, they argued the couple was responsible because the baby was deemed healthy when she left the hospital and was exclusively in their care.

The Wisconsin Innocence Project, Georgia public defenders and a host of other attorneys worked pro bono for years on an appeal. The team assembled medical experts who argued that McKenzy died of natural causes and that the hospital had missed crucial warning signs before discharging her.

In 2020, the state Supreme Court voted unanimously to reverse Debelbot and Jordan’s convictions — but not because of the medical evidence. While justices concluded it was a “close question” of whether there was sufficient evidence to convict the couple, they determined that prosecutors erred when they gave faulty instructions to the jury — and the couple’s original attorneys didn’t object. The court ruled Debelbot and Jordan were entitled to a new trial.

Columbus’s DA at the time announced plans to retry the couple, but later that year she was defeated at the polls. Her replacement decided to drop the murder charges, and he apologized to Debelbot and Jordan for not giving them a fair trial.

The couple divorced after leaving prison.

The current DA, Don Kelly, previously told Breakdown he believed Jordan and Debelbot were guilty of murdering McKenzy, but his office never brought new charges.

Jordan and Debelbot are part of a group of 56 people who have applied for the state to compensate them under Georgia’s new wrongful conviction law, according to figures from the Office of State Administrative Hearings.

Under the law, people are eligible to apply if they’ve served prison time in Georgia for felonies they didn’t commit; had their convictions reversed or vacated; or were acquitted, pardoned or had their charges dismissed. Then it’s on them to present enough evidence to a state administrative law judge that it is more likely than not that they didn’t commit the crimes of which they were convicted.

Kelly was present at a hearing in Atlanta in mid-May when Jordan and Debelbot’s attorneys offered testimony from two expert medical witnesses. They said the hospital had missed troubling warning signs about McKenzy and that CT scans pointed to a strokelike event that likely occurred midpregnancy.