Oversight law signed, but Augusta DA vows to keep fighting it
ATLANTA, Ga. - Georgia lawmakers’ latest attempt to oversee and discipline locally elected district attorneys was signed into law Wednesday.
Senate Bill 332 will implement rules and procedures for the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, an agency created last year by the GOP-led state General Assembly.
Gov. Brian Kemp said it would ensure DAs and solicitors-general “fulfill their constitutional and statutory duties.”
But Democrats say the law was created to target Fulton County DA Fani Willis over her prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
Only months after Kemp and lawmakers approved the agency’s creation last year, a lawsuit by Augusta District Attorney and some of his peers across the state sought to have the law struck down.
The lawsuit wasn’t successful, but the Georgia Supreme Court struck down the agency’s operating rules, which led Republican lawmakers to tweak it to by the court.
Williams said Wednesday the law isn’t about prosecutor oversight at all.
MORE FROM NEWS 12:
Ga. bill would impose harsher penalties for ‘swatting’ calls
Georgia elected officials were targeted by prank calls to emergency services to prompt a response. Now they're fighting back.
Ga. lawmakers are working to boost rural hospitals
Twenty-six percent of Georgians live in rural counties, yet nine rural hospitals have closed in Georgia since 2010. That could be a problem.
Georgia lawmakers divided over limiting foreign land ownership
Legislation that would ban some citizens of China from owning farmland in Georgia is advancing at the state Capitol despite criticism from some.
Ga. Republicans seek to further restrict youth gender care
HB 1170 would ban puberty blockers and end access to hormones for those already receiving therapy. The measure moves to the Senate for debate.
”It allows of one party to challenge and remove elected officials of another without any regard for the will of the voters who elected them,” he said in a statement.
He said tweaks to the law do nothing to address constitutional concerns over it.
“I will challenge this law just like the previous,” he said. “I am licensed to practice law in three states, and I swore an oath in all three of them to and defend the U.S. Constitution. When a law violates the Constitution, especially a law that threatens the voice of voters, I will never back down from that fight.”
Willis isn’t the only DA to come under fire by Republicans.
Kemp has also been critical of Athens-Clarke County District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, who is now overseeing the case of Laken Riley, the Augusta University nursing student whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus a few weeks ago and whose case has become front and center in the nation’s immigration debate.
Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, has been charged with Riley’s murder.
Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
