Georgia Assembly Okays Death Penalty Alternative, Denies Spilt Jury Measure

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, The Atlanta Progressive News (April 05, 2009)

(APN) ATLANTA – A bill, SB 13, passed the Georgia Assembly this year which will allow district attorneys to seek life without parole for individuals convicted of murder, without first having to ask for the death penalty in order to obtain such a ruling.

Advocates believe the bill will reduce the number of death penalty sentences sought in Georgia.

"Sometimes in a case where the circumstances are particularly egregious, the District Attorney wouldn’t want to risk the possibility of the defendant receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole. This will make it so they can receive life without parole without making it a death penalty case," Sara Totonchi, chairperson of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, told Atlanta Progressive News.

State Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome) had tried for three years to get the bill passed, with the support of District Attorneys from around the state. Co-sponsors of the bill included State Sen. Kasim Reed, an Atlanta mayoral candidate.

At the same time, the Georgia legislature fought back bills which would possibly have increased death penalty sentences, including HB 32, which would allow split, or non-unanimous, juries in Georgia to issue death penalty verdicts.

As previously covered by Atlanta Progressive News, if passed, this controversial bill would make Georgia the first state to allow non-unanimous death penalty verdicts, with as little as 9 to 3 jurors.

Proponents of this bill, including sponsor, State House Rep. Timothy Bearden (R-Villa Ricca), tried numerous legislative moves to get it passed, but ultimately failed this year.

The House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rich Golick (R-Smyrna), chose not to take up the split jury bill on its own this Session.

"During the legislative session, with all the meetings, bills, and running around, it’s easy to develop ADD," he told Creative Loafing magazine. "If there’s an issue that deserves a long, probative, disciplined examination, it’s the death penalty."

When HB 32 did not get heard in committee, House Republicans shifted tactics.

Their next maneuver was essentially to attach the language of HB 32 as an amendment to SB 13.

SB 13 passed the State Senate on February 03, 54-0. It passed House committee on February 11. Then on March 17, the bill was withdrawn from the House and recommitted to the Rules Committee.

Upon the bill’s sudden withdrawal, Rules Committee Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper, the bill needed a "technical correction."

State Sen. Smith told the AJC that he had been told the House leadership had pulled his bill in an attempt to amend it with the split jury language. Rep. Erhart told CL that Speaker Richardson had told him the same.

For the last two Sessions, the House would not allow Smith’s life-without-parole bill to pass without the split jury language.

In 2007, the split jury bill had been sponsored by then-House Majority Whip, Barry Fleming (R-Harlem), who recently lost to US Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) in a Congressional bid.

"It was definitely upsetting to him [Sen. Smith]. So his Committee didn’t meet for week," Totonchi told APN. This held up other judiciary bills in the Senate.

Totonchi and district attorneys together had one-on-one conversations with legislators on the floor of the assembly. Rep. Golick also "worked to persuade the speaker to release Smith’s bill intact," CL reported.

"We basically were just negotiating with the legislators to make sure the divided jury language didn’t get tacked on, and it didn’t at all at any point, but the threat was there throughout the week," Totonchi said.

Finally, in what advocates saw as a victory, the State House approved SB 13 without the split jury amendment, on March 25, 2009, 164-0.

While it did have to go back to the Senate for approval again, "it passed substantively in the form that it was introduced," Totonchi said.

Just when it seemed over, though, "it seems the Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson will not back down on this issue easily," Sara Totonchi wrote in a March 25 email obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.

"We have learned that he is trying to amend yet another bill to allow divided juries in capital cases to result in a death sentence. Their plan is to amend Senate Bill 151 (which increases the ways victim impact statements can be presented in court proceedings)," Totonchi wrote. No such amendment passed.

As recently reported by Atlanta Progressive News, Georgia was only one of a few states to execute individuals last year, in a year that the number of executions remained low nationwide. Last month, New Mexico joined New Jersey in a recent series of states issuing death penalty moratoriums.

The Georgia legislature’s actions this year, in approving SB 13, suggest the state is slowly moving away from, or moderating its stance towards, the death penalty.

Yet, a bill by State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) to end the death penalty in Georgia, SB 175, did not receive consideration in committee.

Moratorium co-sponsors included State Sens. Gloria Butler, Robert Brown, Emanuel Jones, Nan Orrock, and Horacena Tate.

And Totonchi sees SB 13’s passage as the exception to the rule.

"The threat to lower the bar to impose the death penalty in Georgia is very real, and we will continue to fight it year after year," Totonchi said.

State Sen. Smith "is just one member of the Georgia Assembly that managed to get his bill, but this was his third year trying," Totonchi said.

"For the previous three years, this bill has been hijacked as a bill to expand the use of the death penalty," Totonchi said.

"I would very much like to say we’re moving in the right direction in Georgia but it’s just not the case."

PUBLIC DEFENDERS COUNCIL CHANGE FAILS

Another bill opposed by anti-death penalty advocates was SB 42, would have overhauled the Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council, making it an advisory body where the governor would appoint a director.

This bill passed the State Senate, 32-21, and well as a House committee, but it did not come up for a vote in the House.

About the author:

Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor for The Atlanta Progressive News and is reachable at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com.

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