After 23 years, she’s free: Nicole Boynton’s path to hope under Georgia’s survivor justice act
By Kaitlyn Ross
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ATLANTA (WXIA) — For the first time in Georgia’s history, a woman serving a life sentence is free because of a new state law designed to protect survivors of abuse.
Nicole Boynton spent 23 years behind bars for a crime a judge now says was shaped by years of violence against her. Her release could open the door for hundreds of others and is drawing national attention.
The first thing Nicole did after leaving prison wasn’t for herself. “I got cards for them, the team and I went to Target, and we got cards to send to them, and that’s how we keep them uplifted,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be long, thinking about you, praying for you, we love you!”
Freedom sounds like traffic, feels like fresh air, and looks like cars passing by after 23 years in prison. “I was outside, and just looking around, watching cars drive by, and it was like, is this really real? It feels great,” Nicole said.
Boynton was just 18 years old when she stabbed her boyfriend during a fight inside their Cobb County home in 1999. He died, and under Georgia law at the time, judges had no choice in the sentence.
Erin Edwards, a senior associate at Alston & Bird who worked on Boynton’s case, said, “Nicole was convicted of felony murder, which carried an automatic life sentence. The judge was not allowed to consider any mitigating factors, automatic life sentence, no questions asked. Nicole has done it; she’s the first person to have had a sentence vacated and be resentenced under the SJA.”
The Survivor Justice Act, recently enacted in Georgia, applies to offenses where a history of abuse was a significant factor, potentially reducing prison sentences.
Court records and Boynton’s resentencing petition show she endured years of physical and sexual abuse, starting in childhood and continuing throughout her relationship. “When she told me she was vacating my sentence for time served, I just couldn’t do anything but cry and thank Jesus,” Nicole said.
Boynton described what freedom feels like now. “To be able to have fresh air and to be free, it’s amazing!!” she said. “It felt like my heart dropped, in a good way. It didn’t feel real at first because I have waited so long to be free.”
She reflected on her time in prison and how she stayed focused on the future. “I always saw myself out of there. I kept my mind clear. So I continued to write, I continued to try to be the person that I know that I can be,” Nicole said. “I didn’t stop. Trades, welding certificate, cosmetology, barbering, there is nothing I can’t do because I put forth the effort to do it.”
“There’s another door that’s going to open, this door closes, another one will open, this door closes, this one will open,” she said. “God is telling me, this isn’t even the end, this is the beginning.”
On Jan. 5, a Cobb County judge officially vacated Boynton’s life sentence and resentenced her to 23 years, making her the first person released under the Survivor Justice Act.
Doug Ammar, the Executive Director of the Georgia Justice Project, helped advocate for the law.
“It’s really powerful to work on a bill, get it passed, get it signed, and then have it go into effect, and someone walks out of prison all within 12 months, that’s pretty amazing.
“We work on bills for years! There are really folks on the outside on every level, knowing that people have been overconvicted or wrongly convicted. There’s a willingness from the system to do something they haven’t done before, and honestly, that the law didn’t allow them to do before,” he said.
Now 44, Boynton has a job lined up, earned multiple certifications while incarcerated, and says she wants to help other women still behind bars find hope.
“With this bill that came out, that opened up the door for a lot of other ladies that lost hope, their hope is back up now. If Nicole can do it, then I can do it, too,” she said.
Boynton’s lawyers say she is not under any state supervision. Advocates believe hundreds of other incarcerated Georgians could be eligible for resentencing under the Survivor Justice Act, and other states are now watching Georgia as a potential model.
To support Nicole in rebuilding her life, you can donate here: gofundme.com/f/help-nicole-rebuild-her-life-after-23-years
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