Georgia high court drops most murder cases in potentially costly move for taxpayers
In a move that has the state’s top judges butting heads, the Georgia Supreme Court has decided it will no longer take most murder appeals, transferring that work to the lower Georgia Court of Appeals.
The change, happening next July, will require the state to pump millions of dollars more into the Court of Appeals, which is already operating beyond capacity, its chief judge says.
“I am not for this transfer, especially under our present circumstances,” Chief Judge Trenton Brown told state legislators in a recent meeting. “Most of the judges on the Court of Appeals share this view.”
The decision, announced Aug. 13, divided the nine justices of the state Supreme Court, which has exclusively handled murder appeals since it was established in 1845.
Under the change, the state’s highest court will take murder cases involving the death penalty and constitutional questions, but relatively few others will make it to that level of review. Most murder cases will be decided instead by a trio of Court of Appeals judges.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Nels Peterson explained why he thinks the change makes sense in a written opinion, saying a key reason is that the lower appeals court can handle cases more efficiently because it has more judges and they predominantly decide cases in panels. His view was supported by all but one of the other justices.
In her own written opinion, Justice Shawn LaGrua disagreed with the workload transfer. She said, among other things, that it is the state Supreme Court’s constitutional responsibility to review murder cases, adding its caseload will be cut by more than half.
For the Court of Appeals, the extra work comes amid a staff retention and recruitment problem that Brown says is fueled by increases in private sector attorney salaries.
Brown told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he’s worried the state Supreme Court’s decision is already affecting his court’s staff.
“It’s my understanding there’s already been further discussion amongst the employees of the Court of Appeals that if they were looking at possible retirement in five to 10 years, this is only going to move up their intentions to retire,” he said.
Timing questioned
Brown said he had hoped any caseload transfer would happen over a longer period with input from his court and the Georgia General Assembly, like in 2016 when the state Supreme Court primarily handed down wills, equity and land title appeals.
He told the AJC he’s now forced to beg state legislators for more money from “a position of desperation” while Georgia prepares to elect a new governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and attorney general.
“The Supreme Court was just in more of a hurry than I think is helpful to go ahead and have these cases come to our court,” he said. “I would argue we’re underfunded and understaffed now, and it’s only going to make those discussions that much harder.”
Brown told the Georgia House Judiciary Committee in late July, when anticipating the change, that his court would need more judges and staff attorneys, plus “a substantial buildout” within the Nathan Deal Judicial Center in Atlanta.
The $131 million judicial center, which opened in 2020, houses both state appellate courts and the state’s business court.
“Any transfer would require millions of dollars in new funding over the next two years,” Brown said in the meeting. “We are certainly able to absorb this new jurisdiction, but the burden is not minor.”
In explaining the move, Peterson said the “long lead time” before July should be enough for the Court of Appeals to prepare. He noted that the attorney general’s office had suggested while arguing a 2025 case that murder cases without the death penalty should go to the Court of Appeals.
Peterson said his court previously decided to uphold the status quo out of respect for the lower appellate court’s need for adequate notice and because stakeholders relied on the existing arrangement. He said the justices did not promise to keep taking all murder cases indefinitely.
The chief justice said his court has been taking all murder appeals voluntarily, though an amendment to Georgia’s Constitution in 1983 meant it only has to take those involving the death penalty.
Court efficiency
The Court of Appeals has 15 judges who predominantly decide cases in panels of three. Occasionally, all judges consider a single case. The court, established in 1906, handles most of the appeals in the state in the first instance. Last year, it had just over 3,300 cases.
Certain cases bypass the Court of Appeals and go straight to the state Supreme Court, including those involving constitutional questions and, until July, all murder cases.
The state Supreme Court can choose whether to review other cases it is asked to decide and denies most requests. This year, the court has granted 26 petitions for review and denied 297.
Its work also includes judicial administration and misconduct cases against Georgia lawyers and judges.
Cases in the state Supreme Court, which last year topped 1,600, are typically decided by all justices. This year, the court has issued 223 written opinions, including 165 in murder cases. Between 2022 and 2024, murder opinions made up between 55% and 59% of the court’s published opinions.
Peterson said dropping most murder appeals will allow the high court to dedicate more time and resources to its other work, including emergency cases related to elections and executions, which are expected to increase. He said the court’s published opinion caseload “will still be among the heaviest in the country.”
The chief justice acknowledged the Court of Appeals’ caseload is already higher than his court’s, but he said shifting murder cases will “significantly reduce the number of opinions each justice reviews and only marginally increase the number of opinions each Court of Appeals judge reviews.”
“This would be a dramatically more efficient use of limited judicial resources,” he wrote.
Brown said the Court of Appeals is already one of the busiest courts of its kind in the country, with case numbers steadily increasing each year in step with the state’s growth. He said the consequences of suddenly having to take murder cases could include that fewer oral argument sessions are granted to litigants.
Judges must decide appeals within two court terms, of which there are three a year.
“We’ve already got an incredible amount of pressure on our professionals, before we take on over half of the work that the Supreme Court now does,” Brown said.