Man spent 110 days in jail in 'new' case for which he'd already served his time
Released from a Georgia jail in March 2014, Eric Wyatt was stunned to be escorted by authorities to a jail in another county instead of being set free.
He was being arrested under a warrant that charged him with borrowing a truck and failing to return it several years ago. However, the case had already been resolved, as Wyatt knew—and he’d already served 179 days in jail for it.
Although he protested the gross mistake to the overworked attorneys in the Cordele Judicial Circuit’s public defender’s office, no one seemed to take it too seriously, Mother Jones reports.
Wyatt was initially denied bond by a magistrate in the Ben Hill County case. He met with a public defender the next day, according to an affidavit in a lawsuit pursued by the Southern Center for Human Rights over representation of the indigent.
Wyatt tried to bring up the fact that he’d already served his time in the case, but the assistant public defender was only there for about five minutes, to help Wyatt fill out an application for representation, not to discuss his defense. “I am not going to be your attorney,” he said.
Over a month later, Wyatt had a brief meeting with another assistant public defender and explained the situation, providing supporting documents. The lawyer said he’d look into it and took copies of the paperwork. However, he didn’t mention the issue at a bond hearing later in the day, when bond was set at $20,000, the magazine reports.
Another two months passed without any contact from the public defender’s office. Then the same assistant public defender returned with a plea offer requiring Wyatt to agree to a 20-year sentence. It would have required Wyatt to serve about half that time.
“Are you serious?” Wyatt recalled telling him. “I’ve already served time for this!”
He again explained his situation and provided the supporting paperwork and the lawyer again said he would look into it, Mother Jones recounts.
A week later, 110 days after his arrest, a deputy showed up at his cell, gave Wyatt a judge’s order dismissing his case and told him to pack his belongings for release.
“I know public defender offices get stuck with lots of cases, but this case is one a lawyer’s got to put both feet into,” Wyatt said in the affidavit. “I thought I was going to prison for a long time, and I was terrified because I thought I might not survive it because of my health. I lived with that fear, needlessly, for three and a half months.”
The lawsuit over representation of the indigent was settled earlier this year, with an agreement setting standards for enhanced legal services, Mother Jones reports.
The article doesn’t make clear whether any litigation was filed by Wyatt individually concerning his incarceration.
