Amid an apocalyptic crime wave as murder rates consecutively doubled since 2020, Georgia’s House of Representatives celebrated the 2022 Legislative Session Monday night without ever having voted on Senate Bill 359, the Safe and Secure Georgia Act. SB 359, now dead, was authored by state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, who garnered bipartisan support for it in the months leading up to Sine Die.
The bill sought to empower stronger gang prosecutions, protect victims of gang crime, elder abuse, and domestic violence, and streamline judicial processes particularly as civil and criminal case backlogs plague Georgia courts. Principally, the bill expanded venue in gang cases so prosecutors could disrupt multiple county sprees of gang activity. It added stiffer penalties for domestic violence and required judges to actually rule on pre-trial motions, hold hearings, and adjudicate issues prior to trial.
Numerous agencies rallied with Albers to support SB 359 including the Fulton County DA Fani Willis, her powerhouse gang prosecution experts Executive Deputy DAs Michael Scott “Mike” Carlson, George A. Jenkins, Jr., Special Assistant DA John Floyd, the Toombs Judicial Circuit DA Bill Doupé, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The need for these monumental enhancements to the gang laws, evidence code, and judicial practices have been echoed in the General Assembly for years by the Georgia Gang Investigators Association and countless others in law enforcement and prosecutor service organizations.
The measure, unsurprisingly, drew ire from the Georgia defense bar for the usual “pro-defendant” reasons, but, strangely, many judges were reluctant to being forced to rule on motions even though that is the point of their robe and gavel. Gang cases, though, tend to be motion heavy, so their frustration is understandable.
Naturally, Albers and the whole gang’s disappointment erupted after nobody in the House uttered words for floor action last Monday. Apparently, there was too much chaos from chasing election fraud ghosts, banning transgender athletes from female sports, and parading through the many retirement farewells.
Moving a bill through Georgia’s legislative process can be murky, but when a lawmaker aims to pass a bill, after successfully carrying it through both chambers as well as their respective committees, they ultimately find themselves standing in line before a Rules Committee. This is who decides which bills will be called up by each chamber’s presiding officers.
At some point, by rule, the presiding officers in both chambers call the bills listed on the Rules Calendar up for floor action. In SB 359’s case, that did not happen before Sine Die, shamefully.
Strangely before being completely abandoned in the House last midnight Monday night, SB-359 had actually been withdrawn from the floor earlier in the day. It was then sent back to the House Rules Committee and put back on the supplemental calendar though it remained there uncalled. The devastation caused by this block and/or tackle move abounded the next day.
Albers had hand-carried SB 359 from inception, through drafting, into both Senate and House chambers, through their respective Judiciary Committees, and finally onto the Rules Committee Calendar. He worked for months improving the bill with Democrats and Republicans.
His efforts, however, were seemingly gaslighted by several in the General Assembly, since none who sponsored the bill in the House spoke up publicly on the floor when it really mattered. Thankfully, Albers stated he intends to revive SB 359 next year.
A companion gang bill, however, House Bill 1134, authored by state Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, was passed by both chambers earlier in session. This at least gave district attorneys and the Attorney General concurrent authority to prosecute gangs as is.
This might seem like a big deal particularly with all that funding, $1.6 million or so, for a new gang unit at the AG, but really it’s beginning to look a lot like “smoke and mirrors” without an expanded venue statute primarily because gangs operate in multiple counties to avoid statewide prosecution across differing judicial circuits.
Perhaps the AG can now team up with the DeKalb DA’s new gang unit after celebrating HB 1134’s passage with Efstration. At least one of the two bills passed.
Gang crime victims and the many SB 359 sought to protect certainly deserved a more favorable outcome than this. Perhaps next year it will succeed if public safety and victims of violent crime are truly a priority in Georgia.
Bill Black is a Georgia attorney focusing on government investigations, cybersecurity, and privacy.
