Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles

The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles is a five-member panel authorized to grant paroles, pardons, reprieves, remissions, commutations, and to remove civil and political disabilities imposed by law. Created by Constitutional amendment in 1943, it is part of the executive branch of Georgia's government. Members are appointed by the governor to staggered, renewable seven-year terms subject to confirmation by the State Senate.

Each year the Board elects one of its members to serve as chairman. The current chairman is Terry E. Barnard, whose term on the Board began in May 2010 and will end on December 31, 2017. Barnard's tenure as chairman began on July 1, 2014.

The Board is the primary authority in Georgia assigned the power to grant pardons, paroles, and other forms of clemency. Parole is the discretionary decision of the Board to release a certain offender from confinement after he or she has served an appropriate portion of a prison sentence. Persons on parole remain under state supervision and control according to conditions which, if violated, allow for re-imprisonment.

Georgia is one of nine (9) states in the United States with a Board of Pardons and Paroles that exclusively grants all state pardons. Alabama (Board of Pardons and Paroles), Connecticut (Board of Pardons and Paroles), Idaho (Commission of Pardons and Paroles), Minnesota (Board of Pardons), Nebraska (Board of Pardons), Nevada (Board of Pardon Commissioners), South Carolina (Board of Probation, Parole and Pardon), and Utah (Board of Pardons and Paroles) are the other eight (8) states in the United States with similar state boards.

Clemency is given by the Board at its discretion. The Board has the sole constitutional authority to commute death sentences to either life imprisonment or life without parole. Georgia is one of the three states whose governor does not have the authority to grant clemency, although he retains indirect influence by virtue of his power to appoint Board members.

The Board is, on occasion, the subject of media attention when it reviews high-profile cases. One such occasion was the review of the case of Troy Anthony Davis, an African-American convicted in 1991 of murdering police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia.

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