Post-conviction relief is the aggregate of those institutions of criminal law by which the execution of a conviction may end before the sentence is fully served — through limitation, review of an indefinite sentence, illness, old age or pardon. This page explains the limitation periods, the review mechanism, the health- and age-based grounds, and pardon.
Limitation of the Execution of the Sentence
The law limits the execution of a conviction in time: the convicted person is released from serving the sentence if the judgment that has entered into legal force has not been executed within two years of the commission of a crime whose statutory maximum penalty does not exceed two years of deprivation of liberty; within six years when convicted of another, less grave crime; within ten years when convicted of a grave crime; and within fifteen years when convicted of a particularly grave crime. The running of the limitation period is suspended where the convicted person has evaded serving the sentence; in that case the period is renewed from the moment of detention or of declaring admission of guilt, and the time elapsed before the evasion counts within the limitation period. Where the sentence is indefinite deprivation of liberty, the court decides whether to apply limitation, and if it considers application impossible, the indefinite deprivation of liberty is replaced by a term. Limitation is not applied in the case provided for by an international treaty of Georgia, and its running is suspended for the period during which the person is protected by immunity.