Georgia Rep. Joseph Gullett
ATLANTA – A Georgia House committee approved legislation Monday aimed at a court ruling late last year that blocked implementation of a new oversight board for local prosecutors the General Assembly created last year.
The bill, which cleared the House Judiciary Committee (Non-Civil), would allow the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission to set its own rules and regulations.
Senate Bill 92, which the legislature’s Republican majorities passed mostly along party lines, tasked the Georgia Supreme Court with reviewing the new commission’s standards of conduct. But the justices ruled last fall that the high court lacks the authority to conduct such a review, effectively blocking the bill from taking effect.
Georgia lawmakers created the oversight commission to investigate complaints lodged against local prosecutors and potentially discipline or remove the target of a complaint on a variety of grounds including mental or physical incapacity, willful misconduct or failure to perform the duties of the office, conviction of a crime of moral turpitude, or conduct that brings the office into disrepute.
Majority Republicans supported the measure as a way to sanction prosecutors in Georgia cities led by Democrats who they said were reluctant to prosecute certain crimes.
But the legislation applies to both Democrats and Republicans, Rep. Joseph Gullett, R-Dallas, the bill’s chief sponsor, told committee members Monday.
“I don’t believe this is a partisan issue,” he said. “No one trusted the judiciary anymore. … We need to be able to trust our system.”
During last year’s debate, legislative Democrats said an unelected commission could usurp the will of local voters in elections of district attorneys. Similar arguments came up on Monday.
Rep. Shea Roberts, D-Atlanta, said having a commission look over the shoulders of local prosecutors could act as a disincentive.
“I worry about who’s going to be willing to run for these seats when we want quality people,” she said.
Forsyth County Solicitor-General Bill Finch, a Republican, raised similar concerns. The new commission also would have jurisdiction over complaints against local solicitors as well as district attorneys.
“This bill will substitute the will of the voters of Forsyth County who put me in office,” Finch said. “That’s a dangerous thing.”
Republicans on the committee defeated an amendment proposed by Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, D-Lithonia, that would have guaranteed Democratic legislative leaders the ability to appoint two of the commission’s members.
House Bill 881 now moves to the House Rules Committee to schedule a vote of the full House.