Yes, Georgia still has the death penalty. It remains on the books for murder committed with at least one statutory aggravating circumstance, along with treason and aircraft hijacking, and executions are carried out by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. Georgia was one of the first states to resume executions after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its rewritten capital statute in Gregg v. Georgia (1976).1Justia. Gregg v. Georgia – 428 U.S. 153
Which Crimes Are Actually Death-Eligible
The Georgia statute lists several offenses where capital punishment may theoretically apply: murder, rape, armed robbery, and kidnapping when accompanied by a statutory aggravating circumstance, plus treason and aircraft hijacking without any aggravator required.2Justia. Georgia Code 17-10-30 – Procedure for Imposition of Death Penalty Generally Federal constitutional rulings have narrowed that list.
In Coker v. Georgia (1977), the Supreme Court held that a death sentence for the rape of an adult violates the Eighth Amendment.3Justia. Coker v. Georgia – 433 U.S. 584 In Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), the Court extended that reasoning to bar the death penalty for any crime against a person that does not result in the victim’s death.4Legal Information Institute. Kennedy v. Louisiana In practice, Georgia can impose a death sentence only for murder with a statutory aggravator, or for treason or aircraft hijacking.
The Aggravating Circumstance Requirement
A murder conviction alone is not enough. Prosecutors must prove at least one statutory aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt before a jury may even consider a death sentence, and the jury must identify in writing which aggravator it found.2Justia. Georgia Code 17-10-30 – Procedure for Imposition of Death Penalty Generally The statute lists twelve. The most commonly charged include:
- A prior conviction for a capital felony.
- Murder committed during another capital felony, aggravated battery, burglary, or first-degree arson.
- Knowingly creating a great risk of death to more than one person in a public place using a weapon dangerous to multiple people.
- Killing for financial gain.
- Killing a judicial officer, district attorney, peace officer, corrections employee, or firefighter engaged in or because of their official duties.
- Directing another person to commit the murder, or committing it as an agent of another.
- A murder involving torture, depravity of mind, or aggravated battery to the victim.
- Killing to avoid or prevent a lawful arrest, or to escape custody.
- A prior conviction for rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, or aggravated sexual battery.
- Murder committed during an act of domestic terrorism.
If no aggravating circumstance is proven, the death penalty is off the table.
Who Cannot Be Sentenced to Death
Two categorical exclusions apply regardless of the crime.
Anyone under 18 at the time of the offense is ineligible for a death sentence under Roper v. Simmons (2005), which reasoned that juveniles lack the maturity that would make the most severe punishment appropriate.5Justia. Roper v. Simmons – 543 U.S. 551
People with an intellectual disability are also ineligible under Atkins v. Virginia (2002).6Justia. Atkins v. Virginia – 536 U.S. 304 For decades, Georgia required defendants to prove intellectual disability beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest burden in the legal system and one no other death penalty state used. In May 2025, Governor Brian Kemp signed HB 123, lowering the burden to a preponderance of the evidence and allowing the issue to be decided by a judge at a pretrial hearing rather than at trial.7Justia. Georgia Code 17-10-31 – Requirement of Jury Finding of Statutory Aggravating Circumstance
How a Death Sentence Is Reached
Capital trials in Georgia are split into two phases. The guilt phase works like any other criminal trial. If the jury convicts, the case moves to a separate sentencing phase in which both sides present additional evidence: prosecutors argue aggravating circumstances, and the defense offers mitigating evidence such as background, mental health, age, or the defendant’s role in the offense.1Justia. Gregg v. Georgia – 428 U.S. 153
The jury then chooses among three possible sentences:
- Death, which requires a unanimous finding of at least one statutory aggravating circumstance and a unanimous vote for death.
- Life without parole.
- Life with the possibility of parole.
A single juror can take death off the table by refusing to vote for it. If the jury deadlocks on any sentence, the judge dismisses the jury and imposes either life without parole or life with the possibility of parole.7Justia. Georgia Code 17-10-31 – Requirement of Jury Finding of Statutory Aggravating Circumstance
Method of Execution and Death Row
Georgia executes inmates by lethal injection using a single-drug protocol of pentobarbital.8Death Penalty Information Center. State-by-State Execution Protocols Injection replaced electrocution after the Georgia Supreme Court held in Dawson v. State (2001) that the electric chair violated the state constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.9Justia. Dawson v. State
Male death row inmates are housed at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, which is also the state’s execution facility.10Georgia Department of Corrections. GA Diagnostic Class Prison Women under a death sentence are held at Arrendale State Prison in Habersham County. Inmates commonly spend years, sometimes decades, on death row while appeals and post-conviction proceedings work through the courts.
Automatic Review and Clemency
Every death sentence in Georgia triggers automatic review by the Georgia Supreme Court, whether or not the defendant appeals. The court examines three things: whether passion, prejudice, or any arbitrary factor influenced the sentence; whether the evidence supports the jury’s finding of at least one aggravating circumstance; and whether the sentence is proportionate to penalties imposed in similar Georgia cases. It can affirm the sentence or send the case back for resentencing, and it must reference the comparable cases it considered.11Justia. Georgia Code 17-10-35 – Review of Death Sentences by Supreme Court
Clemency works differently in Georgia than in most states. The governor has no power to pardon, commute, or grant a reprieve in any criminal case. That authority belongs to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, a five-member board appointed by the governor but independent once seated.12Georgia Secretary of State. Constitution of the State of Georgia For death sentences, the Board alone can commute the sentence to life without parole, and its decision is final and not subject to judicial review.13State Board of Pardons and Paroles. Reprieves and Commutations Historically, the Board has granted clemency in capital cases only rarely.