Terry Norris, executive director, Georgia Sheriffs’ Association
ATLANTA – Any proposals to do away with Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law should distinguish between an arrest made by a civilian and a citizen’s right to detain a criminal suspect, the head of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association said Thursday.
“We don’t need [citizens] to do the job for us,” Terry Norris told members of a legislative committee holding hearings on whether to reform or repeal the state’s citizen’s arrest law. “But they are the eyes and ears of every law enforcement officer.”
The General Assembly passed a hate-crimes bill late last month, and Gov. Brian Kemp signed it three days later.
But with time running out on the 2020 legislative session, lawmakers did not take up other criminal justice reform measures introduced after the February shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man gunned down while jogging near Brunswick. Three white men, including a father and son, have been charged with murder.
The House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee opened hearings last week into one of those subsequent proposals, legislation to repeal Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law.
Georgia Rep. Carl Gilliard, D-Garden City, called the Arbery case a “citizen’s arrest gone wrong.”
“The eyes of the nation are on Georgia,” Gilliard told the committee Thursday during its second hearing on the citizen’s arrest issue. “What we have here is an opportunity to send a message to the world that Georgia has no tolerance for people taking the law into their own hands and taking lives.”
“The criminal legal system in Georgia does not rely on private citizens having police powers,” added Mazie Lynn Causey, a lobbyist for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “[Citizen’s arrests] allow due process to be jettisoned in order to let private citizens assume the role of enforcer, prosecutor and judge.”
The idea of reforming or repealing the citizen’s arrest law drew support Thursday from Georgia’s law enforcement community.
Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, said he never came across an incident involving a citizen’s arrest in 32 years as a prosecutor.
“I don’t think prosecutors would object to repealing it,” he said.
Norris, executive director of the sheriffs’ association, said he doesn’t believe the law enforcement community and the bill’s supporters are far apart on how to approach the citizen’s arrest law.
But he said citizens must retain the right to detain someone they see committing a crime in order to protect lives and property.
Norris said any citizen who detains a suspect must notify law enforcement authorities immediately and must not be allowed to transport a suspect.
Skandalakis and Causey agreed that situations involving a suspect trying to rob a retail store or break into a citizen’s home or car are covered in other sections of the state’s legal code and have nothing to do with the citizen’s arrest law.
But committee Vice Chairman Bert Reeves, R-Marietta, said he’d like the committee to consider legislation that would clarify the rights of shopkeepers and homeowners to detain a criminal suspect.
“Every major retail store out there has so much invested in their loss-prevention program … in dealing with retail shoplifters,” he said.
Reeves said clarifying the right to detain a suspect would make it a matter of state law rather than leaving it to the subjective judgment of a prosecutor.
ATLANTA – A new internal poll taken by Democrat Jon Ossoff’s U.S. Senate campaign shows the investigative journalist essentially tied with incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue.
The survey of 800 likely general election Georgia voters conducted between July 9 and July 15 found Ossoff holding a slight lead over Perdue, 45% to 44%. However, that margin was well within the poll’s margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5%.
While the poll found the two candidates in a virtual dead heat overall, Ossoff held a substantial lead – 55% to 39% – among those interviewed who know both candidates.
In a memo to the Ossoff campaign, Democratic pollster Fred Yang, founding principal of the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group, noted the Democrat has room to build additional support because he currently trails Perdue in name recognition 85% to 64%.
“Jon is in an extremely strong position heading into November,” said Ellen Foster, Ossoff’s campaign manager. “As more voters hear Jon’s unifying message, his support across the Peach State will continue to grow.”
Ossoff and Perdue have been busy on the airwaves since winning their parties’ nominations in last month’s primaries, both touting their own qualifications and positions on issues and attacking their opponent.
The two have been airing TV ads paid for by their own campaigns as well as ads financed by the parties’ campaign committees and independent political action committees.
Ossoff won a crowded Democratic primary in June, avoiding an August runoff by winning more than 50% of the vote. Perdue was unopposed in landing the Republican nomination to seek a second six-year term.
Rev. C.T. Vivian, a prominent civil rights leader, died at age 95 in Atlanta on July 17, 2020.
Rev. C.T. Vivian, one of the foremost leaders of the civil rights movement, was honored at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta Wednesday following his death last week at age 95.
Vivian, who spearheaded lunch-counter protests in Illinois and advised Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., drew cheers and tearful praise from family, friends, advocates and elected officials as his body lay in state at the Capitol.
His son, Al Vivian, urged Georgians to live out the values of love and fairness shared by his father and Congressman John Lewis, who also died last week.
“Love one another, trust one another, connect with each other across our cultural differences, then we can become the America that we say we are,” said Al Vivian. “Until we do that, we are not.”
A preacher and intellectual, C.T. Vivian organized sit-ins as a young adult in Peoria, Ill., during the early days of the civil rights movement. He was one of the Freedom Riders, a leading member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and among King’s top advisers.
In 1965, Vivian helped organize protest actions in support of voter registration efforts in Selma, Ala. On one occasion, he was punched by a sheriff on the courthouse steps while rallying to register voters.
“You can turn your back now and you can keep the club in your hand,” Vivian said. “But you cannot beat down justice.”
Vivian moved to Atlanta in 1970 where he founded and led several organizations focused on racial justice and reconciliation. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President Barack Obama in 2013.
Vivian died last Friday, less than a day before the death of his iconic colleague, Lewis. The congressman and civil rights leader died of pancreatic cancer after a seven-month battle.
The lying-in-state ceremony for Vivian inspired remembrances of another profound civil rights leader with Atlanta ties, King, who was forbidden to be honored at the Capitol by then-Gov. Lester Maddox after his assassination in 1968.
Vivian’s casket was set to proceed by horse-drawn carriage from the Capitol Wednesday afternoon to the nearby SCLC national office in the historic Auburn Avenue corridor, then conclude in front of King’s tomb.
Lack of coordination and inadequate oversight could lead to possible overpayments of Georgia’s Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids low-income assistance programs, a state audit has found.
Released Tuesday, the audit estimated around $41.1 million in Medicaid and PeachCare payments between 2013 and 2019 did not receive enough oversight by the state Department of Community Health (DCH), which oversees the programs and coordinates with outside providers.
The oversight issues could lead to overpayments to beneficiaries and higher monthly fees paid to four managed-care organizations that work with the DCH to provide services. Those organizations contract with doctors, hospitals and other health-care providers.
According to the audit, several DCH divisions are tasked with collaborating with the managed-care organizations to monitor provider contracts, analyze financial data and investigate fraud claims.
The audit found coordination among those divisions has been lax, leading to potential lapses in identifying questionable payments or improper activities on the part of providers. The audit also found information-sharing between DCH and the managed-care organizations should be tightened.
The audit made several recommendations for DCH including to consolidate certain oversight functions, improve communications about overpayment claims and require the managed-care organizations to conduct more risk assessments.
In a response, DCH largely agreed with the audit’s recommendations and outlined steps to make changes in how it coordinates oversight of the programs.
In 2019, DCH oversaw around $10.6 billion in Medicaid and PeachCare payments to more than 2.1 million Georgians. The programs serve low-income families and children, pregnant women, elderly persons and those with disabilities.
The audit comes as state officials field comments on proposals by Gov. Brian Kemp to tweak Georgia’s administration of Medicaid via a reinsurance plan for state subsidies that the governor has touted as a way to help lower premiums. His proposals still need federal approval.
Gov. Brian Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed bills Tuesday aimed at cracking down on human trafficking in Georgia and improving the state’s foster care system.
The governor made both issues top priorities of his agenda for the 2020 General Assembly session that ended late last month.
“Today is an important step forward to ensure a brighter, safer future for Georgia’s children in foster care and bring an end to human trafficking in our state,” Kemp said in a prepared statement.
“As these bills take the force of law, we are fulfilling an ongoing commitment to enhance our foster care system, achieve positive outcomes for our children and hold the perpetrators of human trafficking accountable.”
House Bill 823 and House Bill 911 were part of Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp’s initiative to target human trafficking and better protect foster children.
Under House Bill 823, anyone who knowingly uses a commercial motor vehicle to transport victims of sexual or labor trafficking will lose their commercial drivers license for life.
House Bill 911 prohibits foster parents from engaging in improper sexual behavior with children in their care, closing a loophole in current state law.
“I want to thank the sponsors of [the two bills] for working alongside Governor Kemp and I to put Georgia’s children first, hold bad actors accountable, and ultimately bring an end to the evil of human trafficking in our state,” Marty Kemp said.
Both bills took effect upon the governor’s signature.
