GOP-controlled Georgia House pushes through bill to create oversight of county prosecutors

Georgia’s GOP-controlled House passed controversial legislation 98-75 late on Tuesday’s Crossover Day that would establish oversight boards that could remove district attorneys deemed to neglect select prosecutions.

Dallas Republican Rep. Joseph Gullett’s House Bill 231 would require the Georgia Supreme Court to appoint five-member investigation panels and three-member hearing panels that will determine disciplinary consequences for prosecutors who decline to prosecute low-level offenses. 

Among the grounds for removing district attorneys and solicitor generals are willful and prejudicial misconduct or being found to have mental or physical disabilities that impede their abilities to prosecute cases.

The Senate advanced a similar bill last week, with Republican lawmakers supporting the measures opposed by prosecuting and district attorney associations.

Democratic legislators have questioned the necessity of an oversight committee that can target the discretion prosecutors already have to determine the merits of cases and pointed out that district attorneys can already face disciplinary measures if they have breached duties.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is pursuing a probe of former President Donald Trump, has complained the legislation is an overreaction.

“Their prosecutorial discretion is vital to allowing our locally elected D.A.’s to examine the specific facts of each case when deciding if and how to prosecute, and that’s threatened under this bill,” Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, a Lithonia Democrat, said.

Gullett defended the measure by stating that the state Supreme Court would review any disciplinary action related to complaints filed and subsequent panel decisions.

“This is not a partisan issue in my mind regarding who’s acting in bad faith as a D.A.,” he said hours before Monday’s deadline for legislation to advance to the opposite chamber.  “This is vitally important to communities who have district attorneys who are bad actors and not prosecuting cases or doing things illegally, and ultimately just bringing really really bad light to their offices.”