Devonia Inman has not received a settlement or compensation payment for the 23 years he spent wrongfully imprisoned in Georgia, but two active paths could still deliver one. Under Georgia’s new Wrongful Conviction and Incarceration Compensation Act, signed by Governor Brian Kemp on May 14, 2025, Inman can file an administrative claim worth roughly $1.725 million, and he has until 2028 to do so. He also has a civil lawsuit pending in DeKalb County against the City of Adel and the officers and investigators he says framed him.
The 2023 Compensation Resolution That Stalled
When Inman walked out of Augusta State Medical Prison on December 20, 2021, Georgia had no standing law for compensating people who had been wrongfully convicted. The only route was to persuade an individual legislator to carry a private resolution through both chambers.
State Representative Penny Houston, a Nashville Republican, introduced H.R. 70 in January 2023, seeking $1,610,000 for Inman.1Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Georgia House Resolution Seeks $1.6M for Inman’s Wrongful Conviction The Georgia House passed it on March 6, 2023, by a vote of 170 to 3. Then it hit the Senate. The Appropriations Subcommittee on Compensation voted to table Inman’s resolution along with three other exoneree compensation measures. Senator Randy Robertson moved to table, citing a “discrepancy” over the definition of exoneration, and members said they needed more time to evaluate the cases.2Adel News Tribune. GA Senate Subcommittee Tables Compensation for Devonia Inman
The resolutions did not move in 2024 either. By May 2024, all five pending wrongful conviction compensation measures were still stuck in the Senate Appropriations Committee chaired by Senator Blake Tillery.3Georgia Recorder. Wrongfully Convicted Men Running Out of Time in 2024 Georgia Legislature to Secure Compensation A separate House bill that would have created a standardized expert panel to evaluate claims also failed; in 2023, it had been stripped and repurposed for an unrelated glucose monitor bill.2Adel News Tribune. GA Senate Subcommittee Tables Compensation for Devonia Inman
While the legislative fight dragged on, the Georgia Innocence Project set up a MightyCause fundraiser to help Inman and his family with the transition to life outside prison. After Innocence and the Northern California Innocence Project also arranged support services for him after he returned to California.4Davis Vanguard. 23 Years Later Devonia Inman Exonerated From Prison Life Sentence
What Inman Can Claim Under the 2025 Law
The Georgia General Assembly finally passed the Wrongful Conviction and Incarceration Compensation Act in early April 2025. The compensation language was attached to Senate Bill 244, a bill originally about recovering attorney fees when a prosecutor is disqualified. Representative Shea Roberts called the pairing a “moral straitjacket” that forced legislators to vote for the attorney fee measure in order to support exoneree compensation, but Representatives Katie Dempsey and Scott Holcomb backed the compensation provisions. The Senate passed the bill 35 to 18, and Governor Kemp signed it on May 14, 2025.5Courthouse News Service. Trump Could Recoup Legal Fees in Georgia Election Case Under New Bill
The new law replaces the private-resolution process with a standardized administrative claim handled by the Office of State Administrative Hearings. To be paid, an exoneree must prove innocence by a preponderance of the evidence. Qualified claimants receive:
- $75,000 for each year of wrongful incarceration
- An additional $25,000 per year for time spent on death row
- Reasonable attorney’s fees
- Reimbursement of fines paid as a result of the wrongful conviction
Awards over $1.5 million are paid in equal installments over three years. Qualified exonerees receive an interim payment of $6,000 to $18,000 while waiting for the legislature to fund their full awards. Beginning in January 2026, compensation amounts adjust annually for cost of living.6Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings. Wrongful Conviction Compensation7Georgia Innocence Project. Wrongful Conviction and Incarceration Compensation Act Is Law
Claims must be filed within three years of exoneration or within three years of the law’s adoption date, whichever is later. Because Inman was exonerated in December 2021 and the law was adopted in May 2025, his deadline runs to 2028.6Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings. Wrongful Conviction Compensation
At $75,000 per year for 23 years, Inman’s potential award works out to about $1.725 million, more than the $1.61 million his 2023 House resolution had sought. As of May 2025, however, no exoneree in Georgia had yet received compensation through either the new administrative process or the old legislative route.8Atlanta Journal-Constitution. New Georgia Law Could Help Wrongfully Convicted Seek Recompense
The Civil Lawsuit Against Adel
The state compensation process is not Inman’s only avenue for a monetary recovery. On November 16, 2023, he filed a civil lawsuit in the State Court of DeKalb County alleging that law enforcement officers, investigators, and others had framed him for the 1998 murder of Donna Brown.
The named defendants include the City of Adel, four Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents, two Adel Police Department officers, Lucinda Brown, a Tift County Sheriff’s Office employee, the jailhouse informant who testified against him at trial, and Inman’s original defense attorneys. The complaint alleges intentional fabrication of evidence, witness intimidation, and suppression of exculpatory evidence.9Adel News Tribune. Devonia Inman Freed After Wrongful Murder Conviction Sues City of Adel and Individuals The file does not report a settlement, verdict, or dismissal.
Why Inman Qualifies as Innocent
Any compensation claim under the 2025 law requires proof of innocence, and Inman’s case has the record to support one. He was convicted in 2001 of the September 19, 1998 armed robbery and murder of Donna Brown, the night manager of a Taco Bell in Adel, Georgia, and sentenced to life without parole. The prosecution relied on four witnesses, three of whom later recanted, saying police had coerced them.10Georgia Innocence Project. Devonia Inman Exonerated
In 2011, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ran DNA testing on a homemade ski mask found in the victim’s stolen car. The results excluded Inman entirely and matched a single genetic profile: Hercules Brown II, a former Taco Bell coworker of the victim who later pleaded guilty to beating two people to death in a 2000 robbery at a nearby Adel grocery store. Prosecutors had never disclosed to Inman’s defense that police had earlier stopped Brown with a matching homemade ski mask in his car.11Death Penalty Information Center. Georgia Man Exonerated 23 Years After Wrongful Capital Murder Conviction12Valdosta Daily Times. Man Pleads Guilty to Murder Charges
On November 16, 2021, Chattooga County Superior Court Judge Kristina Cook Graham ruled that the prosecution’s suppression of the Hercules Brown evidence “demonstrates the fundamental unfairness of Mr. Inman’s trial” and that the proceedings were “unworthy of confidence in their outcome.” The attorney general’s office had 30 days to appeal and let the window close. On December 20, 2021, Chief Judge Clayton Tomlinson granted District Attorney Chase Studstill’s motion to dismiss all charges, and Inman walked out of prison.13The Intercept. Murderville Georgia – Devonia Inman Is Free11Death Penalty Information Center. Georgia Man Exonerated 23 Years After Wrongful Capital Murder Conviction
“I spent 23 years behind bars for something I didn’t do,” Inman said after his release. “It took a really long time to fix, even though it was so clear I wasn’t guilty.”10Georgia Innocence Project. Devonia Inman Exonerated The fix, in the financial sense, is still not done.