After being convicted of murder in 2000,  Floyd County Superior Court judge granted Joseph (Joey) Watkins a $75,000 bond following the Georgia Supreme Court ruling that tossed out his conviction.  The move will allow Watkins to have a new trial.

Watkins was also placed with a stipulation that he must wear an ankle-monitor.

Watkins was accused of shooting and killing Isasc Dawkins near Georgia Highlands College on January 11, 2000. He and a second suspect, Mark Free, were arrested 10 months after the shooting.

The two suspects were tried separately, with a guilty verdict for Watkins and an innocent verdict on all charges for Free.

Last month, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a Constitutional challenge to Watkins’ conviction.

Despite having numerous appeals denied, the Georgia innocence Project filed a civil petition, called a habeas corpus. 

“Despite scientific and common-sense evidence of innocence and clear official misconduct, Joey Watkins has been imprisoned for more than half his life for a crime he did not commit,” said Georgia Innocence Project Executive Director Clare Gilbert. “After years of setbacks, we are thrilled with Judge Thompson’s swift decision to grant Joey’s habeas petition. Now it falls on Georgia prosecutors to follow the courts’ lead by demonstrating accountability, admitting error and finally correcting this injustice once and for all. No one is made safer by keeping the wrong person in prison.”

According to the order, Watkins’ due process rights and rights to confront witnesses were violated when a juror conducted an unauthorized drive test and reported her results to other jurors, prosecutors failed to correct false or misleading testimony, and the prosecutors failed to disclose evidence.

You can read the order HERE.

For more visit https://www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/2022/04/11/joey-watkins-habeas-petition-granted/

The motion said that prosecutors violated Watkins’ sixth amendment rights to confront witnesses against him, in this instance a juror in his own trial.

During his 2001 trial, prosecutors argued that cellphone location evidence proved Watkins was in the area of the shooting. The issue came with a juror in the trial conducted an out of court test of that evidence during the trial.

The juror later said that they based their decision to convict Watkins, at least partially, on that test. However, jurors are supposed to make a determination of guilt in a trial based solely on evidence presented in court.

The Floyd County District Attorney’s Office asked the judge to deny bond, citing evidence that showed a pattern of harassing behavior prior to and after his incarceration. 

photo from Georgia Innocence Project