Georgia Supreme Court to transfer most murder appeals by 2027

The Georgia Supreme Court will stop routinely hearing appeals in murder cases starting in July 2027. The announcement came via a concurring opinion from Chief Justice Nels Peterson in the case Coleman v. The State.

Currently, murder conviction appeals account for more than half of the Georgia Supreme Court’s published cases. While the high court maintains jurisdiction over capital cases involving the death penalty, the handling of non-capital murder appeals has been a matter of judicial interpretation since 1983. Chief Justice Peterson argued that shifting these cases to the Georgia Court of Appeals would allow the high court to focus its limited resources on core constitutional and legislative tasks.

The transition provides a lead time for the Court of Appeals to adjust, though legal experts note that lawmakers will need to allocate funding to accommodate the increased workload, which may require adding new judges.