Georgia has had no executions in 1999 and only one in 1998

Georgia has had no executions in 1999 and only one in 1998. In the past, there have been numerous challenges to Georgia's electric chair, but it remains the only method of execution. If the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Florida's electric chair is unconstitutional, that may cause a change in Georgia's method of execution, as well. Georgia does not guarantee an attorney to death row inmates wishing to file post-conviction appeals. One such inmate, 17-year-old Exzavious Gibson, was forced in 1996 to appear before an appellate judge with no representation, while the state's case was argued by experienced death penalty counsel. A transcript of the proceeding showed Gibson clearly had little idea of what was going on before him, at one point even telling the judge he did not know how to plead in a proceeding that did not require a plea. Gibson lost that appeal after offering no arguments and challenged the state's failure to provide representation to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to take his case on October 12. In February, the Georgia Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, ruled that prisoners have "no state or federal constitutional right to an appointed lawyer" in habeas proceedings. Since 1976, more than half - 113 of 221 - of Georgia's capital cases affirmed by the state Supreme Court have been overturned during habeas corpus review, the Southern Center for Human Rights said.