Georgia Supreme Court considers banishment as punishment

Thanks to this post headlined “Virtual Banishment” from Of Counsel, I saw this interesting AP article entitled “Ga. court to hear challenge to state’s banishment policy.”  Here are some excerpts:

Georgia’s judges are barred from banishing criminals from the state, but some use a legal maneuver to get around the ban: Restricting the offenders from all but one of the state’s 159 counties.  That often means confining selected offenders to remote counties in rural Georgia, or hard-to-reach spots near the Okefenokee Swamp….

[This issue arises] Monday in Georgia Supreme Court as justices hear the case of Gregory Mac Terry, who was banished from every county but one after pleading guilty to assault and stalking charges…. Terry was sentenced to 20 years in prison and 10 more years on probation — with the condition that he be banned from all Georgia’s counties except Toombs County in southeast Georgia. 

The banishment effectively blocked his release from prison in June 2001 when he was told he had a chance to be paroled if he completed a work release program. But he couldn’t start the program because he was banned from living and working in Fulton County, a development that set his parole date back until June 2009, according to his lawsuit….

Terry’s attorney, McNeill Stokes, said the [banishment] practice is an “unconstitutional outrage” that’s aimed at getting his client — who has no family or job in Toombs County — to flee the state. “It’s a throwback to the dark ages,” said Stokes. “The whole point behind this is zealous prosecutors wanting to get rid of problems in their counties.”