Back in May, we reported about a new law in Georgia that seeks to hold prosecutors who don’t do their jobs accountable. The General Assembly passed the bill essentially along party lines — the one Democrat who voted in favor of it has since moved over to the GOP — and Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law at a ceremony in Savannah, Ga.
“I am not going to stand idly by as rogue or incompetent prosecutors refuse to uphold the law,” Kemp said at the time. “Today we are sending a message that we will not forfeit public safety for prosecutors to let criminals off the hook.”
The law, which requires district attorneys to look at every case for probable cause and prevents the blanket dismissal of cases, took effect on July 1. The law also set up a commission that has the power to discipline or remove prosecutors who don’t prosecutes crimes thoroughly and fairly.
Naturally, Democrat district attorneys leaped from their fainting couches in the highest of dudgeon over the new law, calling it “excessive and unnecessary” and even “racist” for suggesting that prosecutors should actually prosecute or face discipline. Now, a group of district attorneys has filed a challenge to the law, asking a judge to block it on the grounds that it undermines their ability to choose which cases to prosecute.
“The attack on Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, filed Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta, comes after Republicans pushed through a law creating the panel earlier this year,” reports Jeff Amy at the Associated Press. “Republican Gov. Brian Kemp pledged when he signed the law that it would curb ‘far-left prosecutors’ who are ‘making our communities less safe.”’
Related: Has Atlanta Seen the Light?
Spearheading the effort is DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry “I Can’t Prosecute Domestic Terrorists” Boston, who has twice recused her office from prosecuting Antifa thugs who have targeted the future site of a public safety training center for the City of Atlanta. In typical Democrat fashion, Boston framed the case in the most dramatic terms, pointing out to the AP that it’s “bigger than Georgia.”
“We are talking about prosecutorial discretion and prosecutorial independence, both of which have been solidly under assault the last few years,” Boston said. Have you noticed that when Democrats don’t like something, that means that the opposite of that thing is “under assault”?
According to Greg Bluestein at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, these district attorneys consider the law a “power grab that threatens the independence of the judiciary, infringes on free speech rights, and forces prosecutors to hide their stances from voters.”
Joining Boston in fighting the law are Cobb County prosecutor Flynn Broady, Jared Williams, district attorney for Augusta and neighboring Burke County, and Jonathan Adams, who serves Butts, Lamar, and Monroe counties in central Georgia. Broady and Williams are Democrats, while Adams is a Republican. (I’m guessing that Fulton County DA Fani Willis is too busy trying to get famous for indicting Donald Trump to get in on the lawsuit.)
The attorneys allege in the suit that considering every minor crime takes time and resources away from prosecuting major crimes. The lawsuit claims that “This duty is practically unworkable, limiting district attorneys’ ability to define enforcement priorities and approaches and distracting from the prosecution of meritorious cases.”
“The lawsuit says the state law will force district attorneys to consider crimes such as adultery, sodomy, and fornication,” the AP reports. “Adams, for example, said that after the law took effect July 1, he revoked his policy requiring magistrates to reject adultery charges.”
“The law could also require prosecution for possessing small amounts of marijuana, even though the state crime lab refuses to test marijuana seizure less than one ounce (28 grams),” the AP continues.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has vowed to stand up for the law.
I have great respect for the important role DAs play in protecting Georgia’s citizens.
Unfortunately, some DAs have embraced the progressive movement across the nation of refusing to enforce the law. That is a dereliction of duty, and as a result, Georgia’s communities suffer. https://t.co/tUj5qXHYdv
— GA AG Chris Carr (@Georgia_AG) August 2, 2023
“All Georgians deserve to be safe, and all crime victims deserve justice,” Carr also tweeted. “Like everyone else, DAs who choose to violate their oaths of office are not immune from accountability, and we will vigorously defend this law in court.”
It’s astonishing the lengths that prosecutors — including one Republican — will go to get out of doing their jobs. But thankfully, the state of Georgia is going to continue to hold their feet to the fire.
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