No later than 120 days after the filing of the petition, the petitioner may amend the petition, and if discovery is allowed pursuant to OCGA § 9-14-48 it shall be completed.
Rule 44.7.Amendments to the Petition; Discovery
Rule 44. HABEAS CORPUS PROCEEDINGS IN DEATH SENTENCE CASES · Last amended 1996 · Last verified July 17, 2026
In one sentenceRule 44.7 closes the petitioner’s window to amend a death-penalty habeas petition at 120 days after filing and requires that any discovery authorized under OCGA 9-14-48 be finished by that same point in the case.
Full Text of Rule 44.7
Plain-English Summary
Rule 44.7 puts an outer limit on two related tasks: amending the petition and finishing discovery. Both must happen no later than 120 days after the petition was filed. The petitioner may amend the petition up to that point, and if discovery has been authorized under OCGA § 9-14-48, it has to be complete by then too.
Notice that discovery isn’t automatic — the rule’s language (“if discovery is allowed”) makes clear that OCGA § 9-14-48 controls whether discovery happens at all in a given case. Rule 44.7 only governs the timing once discovery has been permitted.
Bundling the amendment deadline and the discovery deadline together makes sense given how the two interact: a late amendment can open new factual issues that discovery needs to cover, so tying both to the same 120-day marker keeps the record-development phase of the case from spilling past the point where the parties need to start preparing for the evidentiary hearing under Rule 44.9.
Frequently Asked Questions
By when must the petitioner amend the petition?
No later than 120 days after the filing of the petition.
Is discovery automatically available in these habeas cases?
Not automatically — the rule ties discovery completion to whether discovery “is allowed pursuant to OCGA § 9-14-48,” meaning it must be authorized under that statute.
When must discovery be completed once it’s allowed?
By 120 days after the filing of the petition, the same deadline as the amendment window.
What statute governs whether discovery is permitted?
OCGA § 9-14-48.
Does the rule allow amendments after the 120-day mark?
The rule sets 120 days as the outer limit, describing amendments as due “no later than” that point.
Amendment History
Amended effective January 11, 1996.
Source & verification. Rule text and amendment history are
reproduced verbatim from the Uniform Superior Court Rules, published by the
Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia. Last verified July 17, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: USCR 44.7habeas petition amendment deadline GeorgiaOCGA 9-14-48 discovery habeas corpus120 day discovery deadline death penalty habeasamend habeas petition Georgia rule