by Dave Williams | Feb 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation that would make it easier for defendants in death penalty cases to establish intellectual disability as a defense cleared a Georgia House committee Wednesday.
“Georgia is the only state in our nation that is executing those with intellectual disabilities,” Rep. Bill Werkheiser, R-Glennville, chief sponsor of House Bill 123, told members of the House Judiciary Committee (Non-Civil).
Werkheiser’s bill would make two changes to the state law governing death penalty cases involving defendants claiming they suffer from an intellectual disability, defined as having an IQ below 70.
First, the burden of proof to establish such a claim would be eased from proving an intellectual disability “beyond a reasonable doubt” to proving it “by a preponderance of the evidence.”
“That is an impossible hurdle,” Werkheiser said of the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard.
Second, the legislation would remove the determination of whether a defendant in a capital case has an intellectual disability from the guilt phase of the trial. Instead, that determination would take place following a pre-trial hearing.
Werkheiser said having those two phases of a death penalty case considered at the same time – including details surrounding the crime – could inflame a jury against a defendant.
“The facts of a crime and the question of intellectual disability are completely separate questions,” added Michael Admirand, a staff attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights. “(If) you separate those two decisions, you lower the risk that someone with an intellectual disability will be executed.”
Charlotte Dunsmore, director of public policy for the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, said the bill wouldn’t affect many death penalty cases because less than 1% of the population has been diagnosed with an intellectual disability.
However, there have been instances where Georgia has executed someone with an intellectual disability. Last year, the state put to death Willie Pye, convicted in the 1996 kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder of his ex-girlfriend in Spalding County. Pye had an IQ of 68.
“(House Bill 123) will bring Georgia in line with other state’s standards of evidence for determining that an individual has an intellectual disability,” Dunsmore said.
Randy McGinley, district attorney for the Alcovy Judicial Circuit – which includes Newton and Walton counties – told the committee he opposes the bill because the Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the current law.
“The Georgia law is constitutional,” he said. “It works fine. It works well.”
McGinley went on to specify that he does not oppose changing the standard of proof to establish a defendant in a capital case has an intellectual disability. However, he argued that changing the process by allowing pre-trial hearings in such cases would make the death penalty very difficult for prosecutors to seek.
Under the bill, which now heads to the House Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote, motions to hold a pre-trial hearing to determine whether a defendant has an intellectual disability would be subject to the court.
by Dave Williams | Feb 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate confirmed former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Wednesday as director of the federal Small Business Administration, the Associated Press reported.
The 52-46 vote will put Loeffler in charge of an agency that oversees federal loans and grants to small businesses and provides counseling to entrepreneurs trying to start one.
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed the wealthy Atlanta businesswoman to the Senate in January 2020 to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, who died late the following year. Loeffler ran for a full term later in 2020 but lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff at the beginning of 2021.
Loeffler is married to Jeff Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. She also was CEO of Atlanta-based Bakkt, a Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, and was formerly a co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
A staunch loyalist to President Donald Trump, Loeffler backed his unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that saw Trump lose his bid for a second consecutive term to Democrat Joe Biden. At the time she joined a call for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign amid unproven Republican claims of election fraud.
After the 2020 election cycle, Loeffler founded the organization Greater Georgia to recruit Republican candidates and register GOP voters.
Loeffler becomes the second Georgian to join Trump’s second term Cabinet. The Senate recently confirmed former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, to head the Veterans Administration. Another Georgian, former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, is headed overseas to become U.S. ambassador to China.
by Dave Williams | Feb 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation doubling the acreage Georgia farmers can set aside for conservation in exchange for a property tax break easily cleared the state Senate Wednesday.
Senators voted 51-1 in favor of a constitutional amendment that would let Georgia voters decide in a statewide referendum next year whether to let farmers set aside up to 4,000 acres of farmland as conservation property, up from the current limit of 2,000 acres.
Expanding Georgia’s Conservation Use Valuation Assessment (CUVA) program was among the recommendations issued last fall by a Senate study committee that held a series of hearings to consider ways to preserve farmland. Georgia has lost about 2.6 million acres of farmland during the last 50 years to residential and commercial development.
CUVA was launched way back in 1991, Sen. Sam Watson, R-Moultrie, the constitutional amendment’s chief sponsor, said Wednesday on the Senate floor.
“Agriculture has changed,” Watson said. “Our family farms are getting much larger today.”
The Senate also passed a separate “enabling” bill accompanying the constitutional amendment by the same 51-1 margin. The enabling measure sets the voter referendum to coincide with the November 2026 general election and specifies that the measure would take effect on Jan. 1, 2027, if the referendum passes.
Both the constitutional amendment and enabling bill now move to the Georgia House.
by Dave Williams | Feb 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – One of the world’s leading battery manufacturers will establish its new Global Headquarters for Research and Development in Atlanta, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday.
Duracell will invest $56 million in the project, which will create 110 jobs.
The company has a manufacturing facility in LaGrange that has been in operation since 1980 and a logistics and distribution plant in Fairburn that opened in 2020.
“Georgia has set itself apart as a leader in attracting innovative companies with our research institutions, world-class logistics network, and pro-business environment,” Kemp said. “We are excited to welcome Duracell’s R&D headquarters to Atlanta and continue building on this great relationship.”
“We’re excited about the opportunities the move to Atlanta will bring, and we’re confident this new chapter will strengthen our position as a global leader in the industry,” added Liben Hailu, Duracell’s chief technology officer. “This move is a significant milestone for Duracell as we continue to drive innovation in battery technology for many years to come.”
The new headquarters will be adjacent to Georgia Tech’s Midtown Atlanta campus at Science Square, an 18-acre multi-phase development centered on innovation and featuring more than 1.8 million square feet of lab and office space.
The state Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team worked on the project in partnership with Invest Atlanta, Select Fulton, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Georgia Power, and the University System of Georgia.
by Dave Williams | Feb 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Tax relief bills targeting victims of Hurricane Helene cleared both chambers of the General Assembly Tuesday.
The Georgia House unanimously passed legislation exempting from taxation disaster relief payments, grant funds, or crop insurance proceeds provided to victims of the massive storm that struck South, Middle, and eastern Georgia last September.
“This storm was bad. It looked like a tornado hit everywhere,” House Majority Whip James Burchett, R-Waycross, chief sponsor of House Bill 223, told his legislative colleagues. “It’s going to take years to recover.”
“I have never seen the destruction this storm did to our state,” added Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin. “No one has.”
The bill, which passed 173-0 and now heads to the state Senate, also includes $200 million in income tax credits for timber producers who suffered losses from the hurricane and a sales tax exemption on purchases of building materials used to repair or replace greenhouses, poultry sheds, or livestock barns that lay in the storm’s path.
House Democrats used Tuesday’s debate to criticize the Trump administration for denying Gov. Brian Kemp’s request to extend the deadline for Helene victims to apply for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“We still need the federal government to show up,” said Rep. Derrick Jackson, D-Tyrone. “We need FEMA to be there for Georgia.”
Hatchett, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday’s measure is one of a series of bills to be taken up during this legislative session that will offer state assistance to Georgians affected by Helene.
“This is just a small portion of what I think we should be doing for the citizens of our state,” he said.
Along those lines, the Senate unanimously passed legislation Tuesday aimed specifically at timber producers. Senate Bill 52 would temporarily exclude from taxation timber sold or harvested from timberland in Georgia counties declared federal disaster areas after the hurricane.
Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, the bill’s chief sponsor, said 37% of the state’s 22 million acres of timberland was damaged or destroyed during the storm.
The tax exemption would cover the fourth quarter of last year and all of this year, Goodman said.
“No one is ever going to be made whole from this,” he said. “It’s just our job to do what we can within the power we have to help our fellow Georgians.”
Senate Bill 52 now moves to the state House of Representatives.
