The eyes of Georgia turned briefly to the coast Monday morning as state Rep. Don Hogan, R-St. Simons Island, fulfilled his role in the ceremonial opening of the 2020 session in the state House of Representatives.

“And now, a moment I have been waiting for, for three or four months,” Speaker of the House David Ralston said. “Do y’all feel the tension building? The chair recognizes for the report of the Committee on Information and Audits, the chair of that committee, the gentleman from the 179th District, representing the coast of Georgia, Chairman Don Hogan.”

The recognition was the cause of some mirth within the chamber, as state Rep. Noel Williams Jr., R-Cordele, and state Rep. Matt Dollar, R-Marietta, chuckled throughout the process.

“Just look who you’ve surrounded me with,” Hogan said, referencing Williams and Dollar. “Mr. Speaker, your Committee on Information and Audits has read the journal of the previous legislative day, and found it to be correct. And what a great start of this session.”

The House had a light day, approving a resolution that lays out the schedule for the next 14 legislative days, and going through first and second reading of a number of bills.

Notable among the second readers is H.B. 720, sponsored by state Rep. Steven Sainz, R-Woodbine, among others, which mandates probation to follow prison time for convicted sex offenders. Judges would also have the ability to set a maximum life probation penalty if the defendant is convicted of a felony.

The bill also reorganizes how the state determines risk and how it classifies people considered sexually dangerous.

H.B. 724, lead-sponsored by state Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, would decriminalize marijuana possession in unincorporated areas of counties, with the maximum penalty limited to a fine of $1,000. Counties would be able to set other, lesser penalties.

H.R. 811, sponsored by state Reps. David Knight, R-Griffin, and Trey Rhodes, R-Greensboro, urges the House to take a closer look at the Spaceport Camden proposal and consider the risks in approving the venture.

Meanwhile in the other chamber, call it the day the lights went out in the Georgia Senate.

A power outage in the area of the State Capitol threw a bit of a wrench into the proceedings in the state’s upper chamber, though the schedule ran close to planned in the House.

Among the first considerations is a bill on internet sales taxes in which the Senate insisted on its version of the bill, H.B. 276, and notified the House. The House voted against the Senate’s amendments to the bill at the end of the 2019 session, which sets things up for a conference committee to work out the differences.

Among the bill’s details, it would require sales taxes for use of ride share apps, and an online marketplace facilitator would be obligated to pay taxes for retail sales, not the marketplace seller. A marketplace facilitator, as defined in the bill, is someone who “contracts with a seller in exchange for any form of consideration to make available or facilitate a retail sale that is taxable under this chapter on behalf of such seller directly or through any agreement with another person….”

Retail sales will be assumed to be made in Georgia “if it is to be held for pickup, used, consumed, distributed, stored for use or consumption or rendered as a service within this state.”

Legislation taken up during first readers today in the House includes a coal ash cleanup bill, H.B. 756, which is one of the policy priorities of House Democrats.

“Under Georgia law, we protect the environment and human health from household trash more than we protect the environment from the dangers of coal ash,” state Rep. Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, said in a statement.

The bill’s sponsors have a steep hill to climb, both in terms of lobbying and being in the minority party. Republican efforts on coal ash legislation in recent years — notably by state Rep. Jeff Jones, R-St. Simons Island, and state Sen. William Ligon, R-White Oak — never made it out of committee.

Floyd County Juvenile Court Judge Greg Price says some of his fellow jurists remain hesitant to support changing Georgia’s law to let 17-year-olds face justice through the juvenile court system.

Juvenile court judges don’t object in principle to increasing the age to 18 from 17, when suspected criminals are automatically charged as an adult. Instead, they worry the juvenile system lacks resources to handle the resulting  higher caseload or services tailored to teenagers.

Judges, prosecutors, criminal justice reform advocates and state lawmakers met for a “Raise the Age” discussion at the state Capitol Friday to discuss legislation that lawmakers could pass this year. A lawmaker backing the bill says increasing the age to charge as an adult should keep more teens out of state prisons and also prevent them from having a public criminal record that follows them into adulthood.

Price said it’s imperative that the state properly invest in treatment services and other programs for youth offenders if the law is changed.

“We don’t need another unfunded mandate from the Legislature,” said Price, vice president of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges of Georgia. “Until you do it with the right services in place, you’re not doing anything to reduce recidivism if you just change the location of the court.”

State Rep. Mandi Ballinger, a Republican from Canton, said she’s still pushing to get House Bill 440 passed in the upcoming session. But her plan is for the new law not to take effect until juvenile justice officials and other experts develop the plan.

Eleven states increased the age to treat nonviolent offenders as adults in the past decade or so, most recently including North Carolina and Missouri.

Some lawmakers are raising concerns that hardened criminals who are 17 might get off with too little punishment and others connected to criminal justice systems worry about potential costs and how the transition would take place, she said. She wants to allow time to iron out those issues.

“If we’re going to get coordinated and make this happen in 2020, we need to get on the same page,” Ballinger said.

Georgia, Texas and Wisconsin are the three states where 17-year-olds must go through adult courts, according to the Washington D.C.-based Campaign for Youth Justice.

A 17-year-old that commits a serious crime like a sex offense or armed robbery would still go through the normal adult court system, according to language now in the Georgia bill.

Most of the states that pass the law take 18-months to two years before it goes into effect, said Marcy Mistrett, CEO of Campaign for Youth Justice.

“I feel like the moral argument has been won on this issue,” she said. “We know that most 17-year-olds look more like 16-year-olds than adults in terms of their arrest patterns, mostly very low-level offenses.”

A GBI report shows about 6,500 17-year-olds were charged with crimes in 2018. In November 2019, 77 17-year-old inmates and a 16-year-old inmate were incarcerated in three state prisons with adults, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

If those teenagers are taken out of the state’s adult prison population, the cost of processing the 18-year-olds in the juvenile system could fall heavily on local governments, said Debra Nesbit, associate legislative director for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

“Look at the resources and funding and follow it to make sure that if you close a youth detention center, that that money then goes over to a local court for those local services,” she said.

DALTON, Ga. — People on the sex offender registry in the state should have to obey all reporting requirements, says state Sen. Chuck Payne.

Payne, a Republican from Dalton, said he was surprised when Conasauga District Attorney Bert Poston (Whitfield and Murray counties) brought it to his attention that in some circumstances there are lower legal penalties for an individual on the registry who fails to update his or her information as required.

“I’ve been working with him, and Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, and I have introduced a bill to clarify the language in the sex offender registry law and close that loophole. We hope to get that passed in the next session (which starts in January),” Payne said.

Poston said the issue first came to his attention last year.

“All persons required to register go through a classification process by the Sexual Offender Registration Review Board. That results in a rating of 1, 2, 3 or ‘sexually dangerous predator,’” Poston said. “Level 1 is the least dangerous, least likely to reoffend, and obviously ‘sexually dangerous predators’ are considered the most dangerous and most likely to reoffend. Persons classified as sexually dangerous predators have additional registration requirements including that they update their registration twice annually. Once on their birthday like all sex offenders and once six months after their birthday (on their half-birthday).”

Poston said his office was handling a case of a sex offender who failed to update his information on his “half-birthday.”

“I don’t believe we’d had that charge come through the office before and in the process of researching the law and preparing the charges we discovered that the legislation creating that requirement had failed to specify any penalty for violating that particular part of the code section,” he said. “Failure to register generally (on the birthday) is a felony carrying a penalty of one to 30 years, or five to 30 on a second offense. But failure to register on the half-birthday for the most dangerous offenders, because of the absence of sentencing provisions in the statute, has to be prosecuted as a misdemeanor by default.”

Poston said it doesn’t appear

that’s what lawmakers intended.

“SB (Senate Bill) 269 as currently written addresses a couple of different issues, but some of those were fixed by a different bill last session, so we are in the process of stripping those parts out of 269 which will leave it addressing this issue alone,” Poston said. “The final bill should only be one to two pages and will make the failure to update registration by sexually dangerous predators on their half-birthday a … felony just like failure to register on their birthday.”

Poston said the Office of Legislative Counsel has to go over the bill before Payne can officially drop the new version and a hearing on the bill can be scheduled.

Jeannette Farmer Eady, 74, passed away Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 21, at Nunn-Wheeler Cemetery with the Rev. Freddie Hogg officiating. Mrs. Eady was born in Milledgeville and was a graduate of Baldwin County High School. She worked for Dr. …

Grady Ray Townsend (Pop) of Oxford, passed away Friday, May 15, 2020, at the age of 89. A Marine, Mr. Townsend valiantly served his country in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War and was a faithful member of Heritage Hills Baptist Church. He was a hardworking, selfless man w…

Benjie Dewayne Fountain, 58, passed away Thursday, May 15, 2020. Private services will be held at West View Cemetery. Benjie was a life-long resident of Baldwin County. He was a retired electrician. He was preceded in death by his father, James E. Fountain; and two brothers, Eddie Fountain a…

A private burial service for Mrs. Lois Gilbert of Sparta, Ga., will be held for family. Her memories shall forever remain in the heart of her children, Johnnie Gilbert, Jennie Rous, Brenda Gilbert, Polly Wheeler, Eddie Gilbert, Bobby Gilbert, Deborah Gilbert, Timmy Gilbert, Trudy Butt and Ro…

Funeal services for Mrs. Evelyn R. Abram of Sparta, Ga., will be held privately with family. Her memories will be cherished by her children, Timothy Duggans, Charles Duggans, Kathy Harper, Lucious Abrams, Reva Williams and Vanessa Cheathem. Services entrusted to Dawson’s Mortuary, 98 Hopgood…

Georgia lawmakers are working to update state laws that govern which sex offenders get sentenced to wear ankle monitors for life after the state’s highest court ruled earlier this year that the devices need to come off once an offender’s sentence ends.

Time is of the essence, as hundreds of sex offenders deemed dangerous enough to warrant ankle monitors are no longer tracked in the wake of the Georgia Supreme Court’s March decision.

A state Senate study committee Wednesday began puzzling through the implications of the court’s ruling that says requiring Georgians convicted of sex crimes to wear tracking devices after they serve their sentences is an unreasonable search and seizure, which violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

State law now gives the governor-appointed Sexual Offender Registration Review Board sole authority to classify a convicted sex offender as a “sexually dangerous predator” – offenders who the board deems a risk to commit more sex crimes. The board reviews the person’s background, including their psychological profile and criminal history, to make a determination they’re a dangerous predator. A sexually dangerous predator in Georgia now has to wear a monitoring device for life.

Lawmakers are considering changes to that definition in light of the March court ruling

State lawmakers made little progress at the Wednesday discussion to frame new rules for legislation they hope to pass during the 2020 legislative session.

“I don’t know what the answer is,” state Sen. Greg Kirk, an Americus Republican who sponsored the study committee. “But at the end of the day, if you’re a sexually dangerous predator, I want you followed for life in the state of Georgia.”

Of the state’s roughly 12,000 sex offenders, about 1,000 are classified as sexually dangerous predators, said Tracy Alvord, the review board’s executive director. Of those 1,000 people, more than 400 are now free to walk around in public without an ankle monitor. Alvord said the lack of oversight could lead to an uptick in sex crimes.

“I think it will be interesting down the road for us to see now that they won’t be monitored after their sentence is complete, if that re-offending will start increasing due to lack of monitoring for them,” Alvord said at Wednesday’s hearing.

The review board is often bogged down with a backlog of cases and typically classifies sex offenders long after a judge hands down a sentence, often even after an offender is out prison, Alvord said.

An Atlanta attorney who specializes in representing sex offenders told the Senate panel the new law should leave the ankle monitoring decision up to the sentencing judge.

“The problem is that (state law) doesn’t give prosecutors, judges, the offender or me any guidance as to who is going to be a sexually dangerous predator,” said Mark Yurachek, who represented the convicted offender at the center of the March court ruling. “It gets down to the old legal saying of, ‘I know it when I see it.’”

Kirk agreed, adding that whatever legislation comes out of the study committee also needs to avoid expanding state law in a way that would tack lifetime ankle monitors onto sentences for every sex offender, but only for those deemed sexually dangerous predators.

“We’re not going to cast a net and punish everyone,” Kirk said.

ATLANTA — Georgia officials worry a Supreme Court ruling could allow sexual predators to reoffend under the radar. 

Department of Community Supervision officials and lawmakers expressed their concerns Wednesday about the ruling which said GPS tracking of sexual predators after they’ve completed their supervision is unconstitutional, forcing lawmakers to rethink monitoring of high-risk sexual predators.

Sen. Greg Kirk, R-Americus, sponsored a Senate resolution last session to convene a study committee to examine how Georgia laws could satisfy the court ruling but also keep communities safe from dangerous sexual predators who are likely to reoffend.

“I want to send a message that if you’re a sexual predator Georgia is not the place you want to be. You don’t want to live here, you don’t want to come here, you certainly don’t want get caught here, we don’t want you in our state and messing with our children,” Kirk said during the committee meeting. “Children are vulnerable and we need to do everything we can to protect them at all times and all costs. There’s certain lines in life that when you cross, you don’t get a redo, there’s certain things you just don’t get a redo on and that’s one of them in my opinion.”

The Park vs. Georgia 2019 Supreme Court case ruled that a lifetime of electronic monitoring was a form of “unreasonable lifelong parentless search” and unconstitutional. Officials from the Georgia Department of Community Supervision, Bureau of Investigation and the state’s Sex Offender Registration Review Board testified that even low charges of child pornography can lead to more extreme “hands-on” offenses and those deemed “sexually dangerous predators” are at high risk of reoffending.

The Department of Community Supervision is actively supervising 7,536 sex offenders and 224 sexually dangerous predators — those deemed by the review board as the worst offenders. After the Supreme Court ruling, 412 sexually dangerous predators were removed from GPS monitoring.

Before the ruling, GPS monitoring duties of sexually dangerous predators would transfer from the department of supervision to local law enforcement — that system is no more.

“At this point when they’re discharged we remove the equipment and they are no longer required for monitoring,” James Bergman, deputy director of field operations for the department of supervision, said.

GPS monitoring costs $3.09 per day per offender — which is billed to the individual on supervision. Monitoring costs for sexually dangerous predators is billed to the department of supervision with reasoning that the offenders should cover more important costs such as rehabilitation programs.

An expected increase in GPS monitoring by the department of supervision cites rising populations of sexual predators in the state’s corrections facilities. Over the past eight fiscal years, including current fiscal year 2020, the department has seen an average increase of 183 sex offenders each year, according to Rob Thrower, who heads legislative affairs for the department.

Tracy Alvord, executive director, of the state’s Sex Offender Registration Review Board said that they have had multiple cases where a predator was caught reoffending with the help of GPS monitor — which would not be the case when monitors are removed upon completion of supervision.

“If we’ve identified them as predators, they’re very very bad,” Alvord said, “in reference to their offenses and risk of reoffending.”

Officials from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation noted concern of even lower-level offenses leading to more aggressive “hands-on” offenses.

“There’s definitely crossover from guys who are just looking at child pornography and distributing it and hands-on offenses,” Elizabeth Bigham, special agent in the child exploitation and pornography unit, told the committee.

Criminal defense lawyers who represented Joseph Park in the Supreme Court decision that is forcing change in Georgia also testified in front of lawmakers. The “quick fix” of sentencing all sexual offenders to life sentences — which would circumvent the ruling with lifelong probation and therefore lifelong GPS monitoring — lawyers said would clog the supervision system.

“One of the concerns that we have is that you take all of the offenses that are considered sexually dangerous offenses — people who make sexual predators, the 19-year-old kid who sleeps with his 15-year-old girlfriend, he’s a senior, she’s a sophomore, a second pat on the tush,” Jason Sheffield, a defense lawyer who represented Park, said, “that you take those and you say OK the resolution here is life sentences for all sexual offenses and you’re going to throw your net out there to catch sharks and you’re just going to catch dolphins.”

Kirk agreed that lifelong probation was not the answer but it might be possible to integrate GPS monitoring and probation terms into a judge’s sentencing process.

At the end of the meeting, Brendan Spaar, a convicted sexual offender currently under supervision, testified to make the case for “rehabilitation over retribution.”

Spaar was convicted of a non-contact sexual offense in Forsyth five years ago. While his sentence did not include prison time, he is on 10 years of supervision and had his name added to the state’s sex offender registry list.

Spaar had job offers rescinded and couldn’t find employment with his conviction status. Since, he said he has turned his life around, serving on Greater Gwinnett Reentry Alliance, participating in prison fellowship ministries and owning his own consulting company.

“Once my 10 years of supervision is completed, I plan to vote in the 2024 election because my voting rights will be restored once I’m off supervision. I also have a path to be removed from the registry,” Spaar told lawmakers. “This path to restoration is not going to be possible if I have a lifetime of supervision. I won’t be allowed to vote and I will be forever on the registry…We must consider rehabilitation over retribution. I sit here today as proof that rehabilitation and redemption is possible for those convicted of sexual offenses.”

Dalton’s Tina Stanley achieved a milestone a few weeks ago when she was declared rehabilitated by the state parole board.

Dating back to 1993, her struggles with drug addiction led to Stanley committing a string of offenses ranging from shoplifting to conspiracy to defraud to methamphetamine possession. Keeping her nose clean since her two-year prison stint ended in 2009 earned her a pardon by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles.

It was a big moment, but more of a symbolic gesture for Stanley than it would be for most. She overcame some of the barriers that hold back many ex-offenders, including access to quality housing, jobs and educational opportunities.

The 57-year-old says she is fortunate that two judges ended her 15-year probation sentence early in 2014, allowing her to go to school to become a treatment facility counselor.

“I can tell others, ‘I did the right thing, you can do it too,’” Stanley said. “You just have to do the right thing, it is possible.”

For many of Georgia’s ex-offenders like Stanley, getting pardoned is the best recourse to escape the stigma of a criminal past. Last year, the parole board pardoned 467 people who stayed crime-free for at least five years.

Yet, while pardons show that a person is forgiven by the state, that doesn’t clear their criminal record like an expungement would. An expunged criminal conviction is sealed, or erased in the eyes of the law.

And people like Stanley and organizations such as the Georgia Justice Project say now is time to expand a law that prevents someone convicted of a crime from ever having their conviction and arrest records sealed.

“I don’t think if you’ve made a mistake, which I made, I don’t think you should serve a life sentence for that,” Stanley said. “People are needing employment, they’re needing housing and if they can’t get that, they’re going back to doing what they know.”

An expungement is only allowed in Georgia to remove an arrest record when someone was not convicted of that crime, and for some misdemeanor offenses, such as marijuana possession and shoplifting, that are committed before the age of 21.

Georgia is home to 4.2 million residents with some type of criminal history, according to the Atlanta-based nonprofit Georgia Justice Project, which is leading the Second Chance For Georgia Campaign to push for a new expungement law.

“We’ve been working for years on this specific legislation and we feel there is a chance to get it through this year,” executive director Doug Ammar said. “The idea is simple: if someone has been convicted of a crime at some point in their lives, it shouldn’t stay with them and haunt them for the rest of their lives.”

Expungement is supported by several statewide prosecutors’ associations and the members of former Gov. Nathan Deal’s criminal justice reform council.

Some oppose restricting public access to criminal histories held by the government, including organizations that advocate for transparency and increased access to public records.

Major details are still to be sorted out. Those include the length of time someone must wait to get their record expunged, the type of crimes covered under the law and how a victim could be involved in the expungement process, said Peter Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.

“We believe in the concept,” he said. “There’s no objection to looking at record restriction, expungement, the sealing of records.The question is what are the details?”

In 2018, the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform recommended that legislators consider expunging some kinds of misdemeanor and felony convictions. The council said certain crimes such as serious traffic, sex and family violence offenses should not be expunged. 

The council’s report noted that 90% of employers perform criminal background checks on at least some of its applicants and 66% of housing providers said they would not let someone with a criminal history live on their property.

“The unfettered public access to criminal histories bars millions of Georgians from opportunities for a stable income and secure shelter, and these eliminated opportunities come with a cost,” the report said.

One of its council members is Dacula Republican Rep. Chuck Efstration who said everyone from law enforcement and prosecutors to civil rights organizations need to share a role in how this process plays out.

There are several versions of record restriction legislation in Georgia, including one that covers more serious crimes including sex offenses and one that proposes an automatic expungement system instead of letting a judge make the decision.

The Georgia Justice Project and others are working on new legislation that is expected to be considered in 2020.

Georgia lawmakers are gearing up for another busy study committee season that will tackle topics as varied as the state’s high death rate for new and expectant mothers, combating gang violence and the prospects of legalizing horse race gambling.

Some of these legislative panels, such as one focused on preventing gang and youth violence, are already at work.

Rep. Carl Gilliard, a Savannah-area Democrat, pushed for more emphasis on getting ahead of gang violence as Gov. Brian Kemp and other Republican state leaders rolled out a tough-on-crime approach that increases efforts to prosecute more cases under Georgia’s existing gang law.

“The governor and the attorney general are focusing on the law aspects, and they do need to,” Gilliard said Monday. “We’re going to focus on the other side to complement what they’re doing, because if we don’t deal with cutting off the cancer, the cancer’s going to grow.

“So the preventive measure is very important,” he said.

This is one of the out-of-session deep dives that House Speaker David Ralston, a Blue Ridge Republican, has said will help shape next year’s House priorities. Others will take on maternal mortality, mental health services and the movement of freight throughout Georgia.

The work of these study committees will sometimes result in proposed legislative fixes next session.

Some committees push off with a specific mission. In other instances, the issues they are tasked with addressing are quite broad and the accompanying resolutions offer few insights into what their goals may be.

And the makeup of a committee’s membership will sometimes draw criticism from legislators.

House Democrats requested that at least two black women be placed on the maternal mortality committee as a way to give voice to a community that national statistics show is most at risk.

Five of the seven members are women, however, only two of the women are black.

“We are slightly disappointed that that minimum was taken as a maximum,” State Rep. Park Cannon, an Atlanta Democrat, said at a July press conference. 

“And we hope that black women will be listened to on this issue and that women of color in the state of Georgia will feel comfortable coming to the study committee and sharing their issues on women’s health,” she said. “Because we know that there is a pipeline between many reproductive health experiences and maternal mortality.”

2019 legislative study committees

House of Representatives

• Maternal Mortality: This new committee will address the death rate among new and expectant mothers. Georgia’s maternal mortality rate ranks as one of the worst in the nation.
• House Rural Development Council: It’s the largest study committees with 16 legislators appointed to it. The group returns for a third year, and under new leadership, to discuss issues affecting rural communities like economic development and hospital closures.
• Gang and Youth Violence Prevention: Curbing gang violence has become one of Kemp’s priorities. There are more than 71,000 suspected gang members in the state and this new study committee will look into how to better utilize resources in hopes of steering Georgia’s youth away from gangs in the first place.
• Innovative Financial Options for Senior Living: The lawmakers will look at ways to use tax credits and other methods to make it easier for seniors to find affordable housing options.
• Infant and Toddler Social and Emotional Health: Members will study the services offered to prevent and treat mental health issues that affect babies, young children and the adults in their lives.
• Evaluating and Simplifying Physician Oversight of Midlevel Providers: This three-person committee will look into streamlining state laws that give physicians oversight of registered nurses and physician assistants.
• Workforce Housing: The committee will review residential building codes regulations in an attempt to protect individual rights and encourage more affordable housing, the resolution says.
• Heat-Related Injuries, Cardiac Injuries, and Other Sports-Related Injuries: The committee will examine how to prevent the 9,000 heat-related injuries suffered each year by high school athletes.
• PANDAS: This group is set to address the roadblocks to adequate health care that can lead to pediatric syndromes and disorders that cause anxiety among children.

Senate

• Revising Voting Rights for Nonviolent Felony Offenders: Felons in Georgia are not allowed to vote, but should people convicted of nonviolent crimes be allowed to get back their voting rights?
• Evaluating and Simplifying Physician Oversight of Physician Assistants and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses: This committee’s mission mirrors a House committee that attempts to improve physicians’ oversight of registered nurses and physician assistants.
• Athletic Associations: Should a nonprofit organization continue to oversee high school athletics in Georgia?
• Portable Benefits for Independent Workers: Contracted, temporary and part-time workers typically don’t have the same benefits as their full time-counterparts. The committee will study if there are benefits part-time and independent workers can easily carry to various jobs, the resolution said.
• Community Schools: Members will study the effectiveness of so-called wrap-around services for schoolchildren with a collaboration between the school and community stakeholders, including local government and social service providers 
• Passenger Vehicle Seat Safety Belts: Committee members will consider if back seat passengers should be required to wear seat belts.
• Gaming and Pari-mutuel Wagering on Horse Racing and Growing Georgia’s Equine Industry: Betting on horse racing in Georgia may bring in big bucks for the state and this committee is out to find out the bottom line of legalizing it.
• Protection from Sexual Predators: The committee will look at ways to protect the public from people convicted of sex crimes. The state Supreme Court ruled in March that it is unconstitutional to have sex offenders electronically monitored after their sentence is completed.
• Reducing Waste in Health Care: The committee will examine ways state regulation can improve financial management efficiency in hospitals.
• Reducing Georgia’s Cost of Doing Business: This group is studying how lawsuits are impacting auto insurance rates and rural healthcare access for businesses. 
• Creating a Georgia Agricultural Marketing Authority: The committee will focus on whether a statewide-authority should be formed to promote agribusiness.
• Financial Efficiency Star Rating: School districts are rated based on their spending of federal and state funds. This committee will examine if this system favors larger school districts.
• Agriculture, Forestry, and Landscape Workforce Access: Members will examine employment initiatives to increase the workforce in these industries.
• Higher Education Outcomes: The committee will research the ways higher education is meeting the demands of an evolving labor market.
• Educational Development of African-American Children in Georgia: This group will study the resources available in communities that have a major impact on black children.
• Evaluating E-scooters and Other Innovative Mobility Options for Georgians: The committee will try to bring together electric scooter companies, colleges and governments to deal with a burgeoning industry. 

Joint Committee

• Georgia Commission on Freight and Logistics: As more freight travels through the Peach State, this group will seek to create a statewide plan addressing transportation infrastructure. 

Special Working Groups

• Access to Quality Healthcare Special Committee
• Working Group on Creative Arts and Entertainment

The state Senate by a 52-0 vote Friday sent Senate Bill 158, the “Anti-Human Trafficking Protective Response Act,” to the governor for his signature. The legislation was a priority for the Governor’s Office this session.

State Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough and floor leader for the governor, explained some of the amendments to the bill since the last time the Senate voted.

“The first is in Section 1-3 of the bill, and here we just confirmed that the organization, the victim assistance organization that we’re referring child victims to, will be certified by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council,” Strickland said. “The next change is in Section 1-6. This is where we made it where a minor cannot be prosecuted for prostitution in our state — we have the age of 17, because that is the age in our state of being an adult in Georgia. The House had a version of the bill, they wanted 18, and we agreed with them, so 18 is the age we went to there.

“The bigger changes come in sections 1-9 and 1-10, and this is where we’re trying to use our nuisance laws to go after businesses that have human trafficking occurring on their premises, and are profiting from that. The big thing we discussed is how you create a presumption of a nuisance.”

He said there is a presumed nuisance if there’s a conviction or guilty plea regarding a sex offense committed on the property. Nuisance presumption typically will follow a set of notices given to the property owner, especially involving repeated drug activity. Strickland said that from law enforcement testimony, illegal drug activity tends to occur where sex trafficking occurs.

House Bill 424, adding sex trafficking to the state gang law, passed the Senate on substitute 50-0 and returns to the House for concurrence. State Sen. John F. Kennedy, R-Macon, who presented the bill, noted that language regarding elder abuse — which was part of a different bill originally — was added in order to clean up the state law and reduce conflicts.

The Senate also passed S.B. 6, which prohibits the use of drones to drop contraband into jails and prisons, and now goes to the governor.

The chamber decided not to agree to the House’s changes to a revision of the state hunting laws, so that has to be dealt with in conference committee if S.B. 72 is to advance. While there are minor changes throughout the bill, most of the talk regarding the bill involved the legalization of airgun hunting on private land, and making it easier under the law to bait feral hogs.

With state Sen. William Ligon, R-White Oak, on an excused absence, state Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, presented H.B. 201. That bill, of which the lead sponsor is state Rep. Don Hogan, R-St. Simons Island, prohibits the residents of live-aboard vessels from dumping raw sewage into the state estuaries. It also allows for the state Department of Natural Resources to administer anchorages where pumping out of the waste is possible.

H.B. 201 passed the Senate by a vote of 45-0, and because there were no Senate changes, it now also goes to the governor for his signature.

In the House, a resolution supported in a bipartisan manner by the coastal delegation never received a vote. House Resolution 48, which advocates for coastal industries and the coastal environment, while opposing seismic airgun testing and offshore drilling, was placed on the calendar by the House Rules Committee earlier Friday.

However, apropos of nothing and with no explanation at the time, state Rep. Alan Powell — a Republican from Hartwell who does not sit on the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee, which favorably reported the resolution — late Friday afternoon had it recommitted to the Rules Committee.

Georgia’s most controversial Constitutional Amendment proposed on the ballot this November is Marsy’s Law – Amendment 4 – which deals with victims of crime and what rights they have.

The measure is part of a national effort to add additional rights and privileges for victims of crime. It’s named after California college student Marsalee “Marsy” Nicholas, who was stalked and killed in 1983 by an ex-boyfriend. It is already codified in state statute. In Georgia, millions have been spent on emotionally-charged television ads in an attempt to sway voters to vote in favor of the Amendment.

One of the greatest criticisms of Amendment 4 is that it’s already a state statute, meaning a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Proponents of Amendment 4 have denied that the provisions in Marsy’s Law are already in Georgia code.

So let’s take a look at the law.

Title 17 of the Georgia code deals with criminal procedure and chapter 17 deals specifically with the Crime Victim’s Bill of Rights. You can see it in its entirety here.

Among the most important aspects of the Chapter is OCGA 17-17-1, which reads:

The General Assembly hereby finds and declares it to be the policy of this state that victims of crimes should be accorded certain basic rights just as the accused are accorded certain basic rights.

The code section then goes on to outline various rights, all of which can be seen here, but include the right to ‘reasonable, accurate, and timely notice’ of court proceedings, notice of arrest/release/escape, the right to be heard in court (including plea and sentencing), the right to file an objection, the right to file a written objection, the right to confer with prosecutors, the right to restitution, the right to an unreasonable delay in proceedings, and the right to be treated fairly and with dignity.

That sounds immensely similar to the proposed Constitutional Amendment which allows, upon request, crime victims to have specific rights, including the right to be treated with “fairness, dignity, and respect;” the right to notice of all proceedings involving the alleged criminal; the right to be heard at any proceedings involving that release, plea, or sentencing of the accused; and the right to be informed of their rights. The amendment also explicitly stated that the legislature was able to further define, expand, and provide for the enforcement of the rights.

In fact, the Crime Victim’s Bill of Rights actually seems more expansive than the Constitutional Amendment, providing for restitution and an unreasonable delay in proceedings. Of note is that one of the criticisms from law enforcement, prosecutors, and defense attorneys is that a Constitutional Amendment would actually slow down the proceeding process by ensuring the Constitutional rights provided by victims would be guaranteed, as the process of protecting Constitutional rights is more elaborate and time consuming due to the fact that there is legal and financial recourse for people who have their rights violated.

To take it a step further, per the Georgia code, the section already applies to:

• Crimes against the person
• Sexual offenses
• Burglary, arson, and crimes involving bombs & explosives
• Theft and robberies
• Forgery and fraudulent practices
• Obscenity-related charges
• Homicide by vehicle
• Feticide by vehicle
• Serious injury by vehicle

If that’s not enough, OCGA 17-17-5 requires, by use of the words “All victims, wherever practicable, shall be entitled to notification…” of all of the things Marsy’s Law seeks to implement. The only caveat is that the victim must maintain an updated phone number and mailing address with the courts. If someone is so concerned, I don’t feel that’s too much to ask.

In addition to what I’ve already outline, Chapter 17 of Title 17 of the Georgia code outlines a concise list of steps the state is required to take to keep victims informed.

And finally, these rights apply to victims, and in the event of the death of the victim, their spouse and/or family members. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council has even put together a full declaration of victim’s right which details how extensive the Bill of Right’s policy already is, which I’ve included at the bottom of this article.

This Constitutional Amendment would actually provide more rights for victims than it would for anyone else under the law, including the accused which is only exacerbated by the fact that it will be in the Constitution.

This is more about recourse for victims than anything. The state law, which is already in place, that requires notification doesn’t have a pathway for victims to actually gain anything if they are not notified or something happens. This would allow for claims of a violation of their constitutional rights should the court system fail to notify them. It sounds nice, but I still feel strongly that this isn’t the intended purpose of our Constitution.

I’ve written extensively explaining seven other reasons I’m against the Amendment. You can read that below.

COLUMN: Why I’m Voting NO on Georgia’s Amendment 4 – Marsy’s Law

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