ATLANTA — In a recent opinion in the Georgia Supreme Court, the state’s new Chief Justice wrote that the state’s legal system for post-conviction litigation is “a mess.” The written comes from Justice Nels Peterson, in a concurring opinion issued in a case where a Toombs County man convicted of murder was working to appeal his conviction. While the conviction was not overturned, Peterson’s concurring opinion focused on issues in the state legal system, echoing similar comments he made during his State of the Judiciary address to lawmakers in February . [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks ] In the opinion, Peterson lays the blame for issues in the court system at the feet of the Georgia Supreme Court and decisions made over many years. “It’s a mess in large part because of a series of well-meaning but shortsighted decisions this Court made over the course of several decades,” Peterson wrote. “Those decisions had a worthy goal: seeking to ensure that indigent defendants were entitled to appointed counsel for litigating claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. But the means we used to pursue that goal have made things worse, not better.” Indigent defend
