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(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty)
Georgia Republicans are staunch law and order types who back the blue and support local control … except when Democrats succeed in electing district attorneys who enforce their own priorities. In that case, the legislature needs to swing into action to tell those prosecutors what’s what!
This week, Georgia joined the ranks of states proposing bills to impose statewide oversight on local prosecutors and even remove them from office if they fall out of favor with the ruling party. SB 92, which passed the Georgia Senate 32-24 on Thursday, would create a Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission composed of gubernatorial and legislative appointees empowered to “discipline, remove, and cause involuntary retirement of appointed or elected district attorneys or solicitors-general” for “mental or physical incapacity,” “willful misconduct in office,” or “willful and persistent failure to carry out duties.”
As the New York Times points out, the blanket refusal by some local district attorneys to prosecute abortion, even as dozens of states impose draconian anti-choice laws, has sparked a backlash by conservative legislators. As one of his daily, performative, culture war flexes, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended an elected prosecutor in Tampa last year, while Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered House voted to remove Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.
And of course Georgia Republicans do care about culture war issues. But there’s no way to talk about this law without considering District Attorney Fani Willis’s ongoing investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to steal the state’s 16 electoral votes from Joe Biden — particularly since multiple Republican state legislators found themselves summoned before the special purpose grand jury as either witnesses or targets of the investigation thanks to their role in the fraudulent electors scheme. In fact, under SB 92, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who has been told he is a target of Willis’s investigation, would be empowered to appoint one member of the prosecutors oversight body.
The language of the statute does not inspire confidence that it won’t be wielded for political advantage. For instance, it empowers the board to entertain a complaint based on a “plausible” allegation that a prosecutorial decision was based on “undue bias or prejudice against the accused” or “factors that are completely unrelated to the duties of prosecution.” Let’s take a wild shot in the dark that these legislators do not have in mind an evangelical DA who has expressed the opinion that abortion is murder in the eyes of God. In fact, it seems much more likely that the law will be used to interrogate Willis’s subjective motivations on the basis of “plausible” allegations of “undue bias” by Trump supporters who agree with his characterization of the DA as a “Racist in Reverse,” harassing Trump at the behest of “the Department of Injustice in D.C.”
Indeed State Senator Bill Cowsert, the brother-in-law of Gov. Brian Kemp, appeared to confirm as much in an exchange with Willis last month. As reported by the Times, when DA Willis noted that her office has prioritized gang prosecutions, he snarked, “That’s not what we’re reading in the paper you’re prosecuting.”
“I’m very curious. Maybe somebody wants to go ask him what one case he’s talking about. Because I have 20,000 cases in this office,” DA Willis told the Times. (The eye roll is implied.)
For her part, DA Willis characterized the new law as inherently racist.
“I’m tired and I’m just going to call it how I see it. I, quite frankly, think the legislation is racist. I don’t know what other thing to call it,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee, noting that the state had gotten along just fine with the State Bar supervising district attorneys right up until voters put 14 minority prosecutors in office in 2020.
“It seems to me that what they’re really saying is that there should be local control until we don’t like who the locals choose,” Willis added later, noting that prosecutors have limited resources and must necessarily use their discretion to decide which crimes to prioritize.
Sen. Cowsert responded by calling Willis racist, while his colleague, Sen. Brian Strickland chastised her for “being emotional.”
And lo, even as we type, the subject of that investigation has weighed in to let us all know that he’s well aware this bill is all about him:
The Racist District Attorney in Atlanta, Fani T. Willis, one of the most dangerous and corrupt cities in the U.S., is now calling the Georgia Legislature, of course, RACIST, because they want to make it easier to remove and replace local rogue prosecutors who are incompetent, racist, or unable to properly do their job. This is a great development for Georgia, but also other parts of the Country. Congratulations to the Georgia Legislature for having the courage to act boldly, fairly, and fast!
That train is never late.
Georgia Republicans rally behind new oversight of prosecutors [AJC]
As Trump Inquiry Continues, Republicans Seek Oversight of Georgia Prosecutors [NYT]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.
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