Media outlets that extensively covered Adkins’ arrest, prosecution and conviction are being asked to return to the story as records uncovered years later challenge important parts of the narrative presented against him. BRUNSWICK, GA — August 28, 2026 — Nearly a decade after the arrest of controversial pastor, political consultant and community activist Kenneth Adkins became major news across Southeast Georgia and beyond, a nationally distributed wrongful-conviction podcast is taking a new look at the case—and at evidence Adkins’ supporters say the public never heard.
On Sunday, August 30, at 2:00 p.m. EST, Wicked Lies will premiere “The Kenneth Adkins Story” on YouTube, examining the conviction that resulted in Adkins receiving three life sentences and the evidence now being assembled in his continuing effort to overturn that conviction.
For the news organizations that extensively reported Adkins’ arrest, trial and conviction, the Kenneth Adkins Freedom Project is making a direct request:
Come back to the story.
Adkins was an intensely controversial public figure. His arrest generated substantial media attention, and many people formed opinions about him long before a jury returned its verdict.
But journalism cannot end with a conviction when documents later emerge that raise legitimate questions about how that conviction was obtained.
Among the issues now deserving independent media examination is a striking discrepancy between what GBI Special Agent James Feller told a magistrate at Adkins’ September 2016 preliminary hearing and what the newspaper article Feller referenced actually reported.
According to the preliminary-hearing transcript, Feller described an article as showing Adkins mentoring young people at Greater Dimensions on G Street. Assistant District Attorney Katie Gropper subsequently relied upon that testimony in arguing that Adkins was already at Greater Dimensions in May 2010.
But the May 18, 2010 article in The Brunswick News reportedly places the mentoring program at the Roosevelt Lawrence Community Center on H Street and identifies Adkins as pastor of First Jordan Grove Missionary Baptist Church.
A separate May 29, 2010 advertisement in The Brunswick News announced the launch of Greater Dimensions and its first service for May 30, 2010.
Those are not differences of opinion about Kenneth Adkins.
They are differences between what a document says and what a law-enforcement witness told a court that document said.
The significance is heightened by other records uncovered in the case, including a resignation letter concerning Adkins’ departure from First Jordan Grove that the defense maintains was never disclosed before trial. The letter bears directly on a timeline that became important to the prosecution’s case and closing argument.
Adkins maintains that nothing improper occurred with either accuser, regardless of age.
The Wicked Lies episode is hosted by California-based advocates Dawn Wolfson and Juliann Andrews, volunteers with Advocates for the Falsely Accused. Both have had their lives touched by false accusations and have devoted their advocacy to raising awareness about false allegations, wrongful convictions and the people and families affected by them.
The podcast arrives at an important moment. Adkins, now incarcerated at Augusta State Medical Prison, is preparing for state habeas proceedings and has sought court-appointed counsel. His case potentially involves claims concerning suppressed evidence, ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct and other constitutional issues.
A QUESTION FOR THE MEDIA THAT COVERED THE ORIGINAL CASE
The Kenneth Adkins Freedom Project is not asking journalists to accept its conclusions or declare Adkins innocent.
It is asking them to investigate.
The same newsrooms that devoted substantial resources to reporting the accusations, arrest, courtroom proceedings and conviction now have an opportunity—and, we believe, a journalistic responsibility—to examine records that were not part of the public narrative when Adkins was convicted.
If the media helped tell America how Kenneth Adkins went to prison, then evidence raising serious questions about how he got there deserves coverage too.
The controversy surrounding Adkins should not determine whether newly uncovered evidence receives scrutiny. Neither sympathy nor dislike should decide which documents matter.
The documents should.
The preliminary-hearing transcript exists.
The May 18, 2010 newspaper article exists.
The May 29, 2010 advertisement exists.
The resignation letter exists.
Put them side by side. Interview the people involved. Ask what was known, when it was known, what was disclosed to the defense and why testimony describing a newspaper article appears to differ from the article itself.
Then report what the evidence shows.
NATIONAL PREMIERE
WICKED LIES — THE KENNETH ADKINS STORY
Sunday, August 30, 2026
2:00 PM EST
YouTube Premiere
MEDIA CONTACT:
Charlotte Adkins
Kenneth Adkins Freedom Project
kennethadkins.org