ATLANTA – The state House of Representatives has passed legislation to replace the current system for compensating wrongfully convicted Georgians who spent years in prison with a new process supporters say is clearer and more consistent.
Under House Bill 1354, which passed unanimously early Tuesday evening, those who have been exonerated of a crime for which they were wrongfully convicted would no longer have to find a member of the House willing to introduce a private compensation resolution.
Instead, they would apply to a newly created panel of legal experts that would include a criminal court judge, a prosecutor, a criminal defense lawyer and two other attorneys. The panel would review the case and make a recommendation to the House Appropriations Committee.
“An individual would have to prove they’re innocent, to demonstrate with testimony that they’re innocent,” said Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta, the bill’s chief sponsor.
Holcomb said 38 states have such a system in place for compensating the wrongfully convicted.
Under Holcomb’s bill, compensated would range from $50,000 to $100,000 for each year the individual was incarcerated. The average compensation among the states is about $70,000 a year, he said.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, one of the bill’s cosponsors, said the law would kick in only after a conviction has been overturned.
“It provides a consistent process that allows experts to analyze these issues,” he said. “Legislative authority is not eroded here. In fact, it’s strengthened because we get experts making a recommendation.”
The Georgia Innocence Project, an advocacy group that fights to free the wrongfully convicted, praised the House for passing the bill with bipartisan support.
“No piece of legislation can give back the years taken from people who have suffered the tragic consequences of imprisonment for a crime they did not commit,” said Clare Gilbert, the group’s executive director. “This bill does provide some financial security for exonerees to rebuild their lives in freedom.”
The legislation now heads to the state Senate.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Once again, the push to legalize some form of gambling in Georgia has fizzled in the General Assembly.
The state Senate killed a constitutional amendment Tuesday that would have put legalizing pari-mutuel betting on horse racing on the ballot for Georgia voters in November.
Senators voted 33-20 in favor of the legislation Tuesday morning, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass a constitutional amendment.
Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, the measure’s sponsor, tried to get it back on the Senate floor throughout the rest of the day, but the Senate adjourned early Tuesday evening without taking it up. Tuesday was Crossover Day in the General Assembly, the deadline for bills to pass at least one legislative chamber to remain alive for the year.
Citing a study conducted by Georgia Southern University, Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, who raises racehorses, said legalizing pari-mutuel betting on horse racing would grow an equine industry that would create 8,500 jobs – including many in rural Georgia – and deliver nearly $1 billion in annual economic impact.
The existing horse breeding industry in Georgia needs the boost building racetracks in the Peach State would give it, said Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta.
“There’s no incentive for owners and breeders to race their horses in our state,” he said. “Millions of dollars leave Georgia every year.”
The legislation called for dedicating the state’s portion of proceeds from horse racing to education, health care and rural economic development.
But opponents warned horse racing would lead to gambling addiction.
“We’ve all met people who could not handle gambling,” said Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone. “Money goes from the table. Money goes from paying for housing.”
Technically, legalizing gambling in Georgia remains a live issue even though Crossover Day has come and gone. A constitutional amendment the Senate passed last year asking voters to decide whether to legalize sports betting remains alive in the state House of Representatives.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – High school accrediting agencies would have to rate schools and school districts primarily on academic performance rather than the performance of their school boards under legislation that cleared the Georgia Senate Tuesday.
Senate Bill 498, which passed unanimously and now moves to the state House of Representatives, was prompted by a recent review by the accrediting agency Cognia that criticized the governance of the Cobb County Board of Education, made up of four Republicans and three Democrats.
The agency subsequently voided most of the review’s findings after determining it didn’t account for the school district’s response to how it spends tax dollars.
But such issues should not be front and center of an accrediting agency’s review, Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, the bill’s chief sponsor, said before Tuesday’s vote.
“The core business of education is academic performance,” said Tippins, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee. “What [colleges] are not looking for is an evaluation of whether the adults play well together.”
Under Tippins’ bill, 80% of accreditation reviews must be based on academic performance. The other 20% would be based on financial accountability and efficiency.
“This bill focuses on the students … and the quality of education they receive,” Tippins said.
The legislation also would subject all documents created by accrediting agencies to Georgia’s open records law.
This story isavailable through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House and Senate passed separate bills Tuesday aimed at restarting a medical marijuana program that has been sidetracked by a dispute over the awarding of licenses to produce low-THC cannabis oil.
Both bills would throw out the selection process a commission the state created to oversee the program used to tentatively award licenses to six companies to grow marijuana and convert the leafy crop to cannabis oil.
The Senate bill, which passed unanimously, instructs the commission to restart the selection process and award six licenses by May 31.
The House version, which passed 169-5, sets an Aug. 1 deadline for the commission to obtain enough oil to meet the current needs of Georgia patients.
However, it goes a step further by requiring the state Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) – rather than the commission – to issue a new request for proposals. The DOAS would bring in an independent consultant to score the bids.
After legalizing possession of cannabis oil in Georgia seven years ago, the General Assembly created the commission in 2019, with the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker appointing its members.
The commission tentatively awarded two “Class 1” licenses last summer authorizing the winning bidders to grow marijuana in up to 100,000 square feet of space and four “Class 2” licenses to grow the crop in a space of up to 50,000 square feet.
Sixteen companies denied licenses have filed legal protests claiming the selection process was unfair and arbitrary, threatening to tie up the program in lengthy litigation.
Starting over with consultants playing a key role in the licensing process is the fairest way to get the long-delayed program off the ground, Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, told his House colleagues Tuesday.
“It moves this process out of the hands of a bunch of appointed folks and puts it in the hands of professionals,” he said.
Rep. Micah Gravley, R-Douglasville, who sponsored the 2019 bill, urged lawmakers to stay focused on the 20,000 Georgia patients who are on the state registry to receive cannabis oil once the program gets started.
“There are constituents in just about every one of your districts who need this,” he said.
“The sole purpose of the bill is to move the ball forward toward getting medical cannabis to folks on the registry,” said Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, the Senate bill’s chief sponsor.
The House bill also would add Georgians with ulcerative colitis to the list of those eligible to obtain cannabis oil. The list of eligible diseases already includes seizure disorders, Parkinson’s disease, terminal cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder and sickle-cell anemia.
The two bills passed on Crossover Day, the deadline for bills to clear at least one legislative chamber to remain alive for the year. The House bill now heads to the Senate, while the Senate measure moves to the House.
This story isavailable through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia voters would decide whether their representatives in the General Assembly should get a raise under a proposed constitutional amendment the state House of Representatives passed Tuesday.
The House approved the legislation 136-33, well above the two-thirds majority needed for constitutional amendments to clear the chamber. It now moves to the Georgia Senate.
If voters ratify the amendment in November, annual salaries for members of the state House of Representatives and Senate would be set at 60% of the median household income in Georgia.
Based on the state’s current median income of $58,000 a year, lawmakers would be paid about $35,000 annually. Legislators currently are paid just more than $17,000 a year.
Lawmakers haven’t gotten a raise since the 1990s, Rep. Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock, the constitutional amendment’s chief sponsor, told his House colleagues before the vote.
The amount of the proposed raise was based on research conducted by the National Conference of State Legislatures, which concluded that Georgia legislators typically work enough hours to justify two-thirds of a full-time position, Cantrell said.
The amendment would take effect in July of next year. After that date, lawmakers would no longer have any say over the politically dicey decision of how much they are paid.
“This is an issue that represents a conflict of interest for all of us,” Cantrell said. “This constitutional amendment protects us from having to recuse ourselves. … We will never have to address this issue again.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
