Georgia’s House of Representatives has approved a bill that will allow superior court judges to grant wiretap warrants that are applicable statewide.

House Bill 55 seeks to override a recent state Supreme Court decision that found wiretap orders must be issued by judges with jurisdiction where law enforcement listening posts are located. The bill would change the law so that a judge with jurisdiction over the crime under investigation may issue a wiretap warrant that is applicable statewide, not just within the judge’s geographical jurisdiction.

“As we all know, drug trafficking does not confine itself to neat geographic boundaries,” the bill’s sponsor, House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee Chairman Rich Golick, R-Smyrna, told the chamber. “The bill will change Georgia statute … so law enforcement can keep doing what it is doing. I want to make it clear it does not expand government authority as it relates to use of wiretap warrants.”

The bill also would allow judges to authorize the use of a pen register or trap-and-trace device statewide. Law enforcement uses these devices to track the patterns,  but not the substance, of calls in real time in order to establish probable cause for securing a wiretap warrant.

Today’s 164-1 vote and immediate transmittal to the Senate move the bill along its quick trajectory through the General Assembly.

The measure is supported by the District Attorneys’ Association of Georgia and has not been opposed by the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

To read more about House Bill 55, see the Daily Report’s previous coverage: http://www.dailyreportonline.com/PubArticleDRO.jsp?id=1202585141109

The governor’s criminal justice reform council will meet Tuesday in Forsyth to discuss policy changes that it may recommend to the state Legislature in a few months.

The council, whose membership the governor expanded from 13 to 21 after the 2012 legislative session and the passage of House Bill 1176, is now focused on reducing youth recidivism in hopes that it will stem the number of adult offenders and decrease the state’s corrections costs. HB 1176 created a statewide system of accountability courts, increased the felony threshold for certain non-violent crimes such as shoplifting and reduced penalties for non-violent, drug-related crimes.

Previous meetings of the council focused on examining the problems of the juvenile justice system, namely that Georgia spends more than $90,000 per bed annually for secure youth residential facilities and that the three-year recidivism rate for youth at these facilities is 65 percent.

Meanwhile, the public interest law firm Southern Center for Human Rights is urging the criminal justice reform council to steer away from policies that may bolster private prison and probation industries.

In a report released Monday, the Southern Center contends that for-profit prison and probation companies actually cost taxpayers more per inmate than prisons and probation run by the government, present more dangerous conditions because they hire lower-paid, less-experienced guards and operate without public oversight because their records are exempt from open government laws.

The center also is urging the council to consider revising mandatory minimum sentences to give judges more discretion, enhancing rehabilitation programs, creating penalties for poor performing private prisons and establishing standards for how indigent probationers are handled by private probation programs so that they won’t be incarcerated for failure to pay fines
unless the court determines the failure is willful.

A federal judge is considering whether to grant an injunction sought by the Rev. Joseph Lowery and the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus in a lawsuit that claims the new city of Brookhaven infringes on minority voting rights.

The injunction asks that Brookhaven be prevented from continuing to incorporate, or that all DeKalb County voters be allowed to participate in the city’s upcoming elections on Nov. 6.

U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell Jr. took the matter under advisement following a telephone conference Thursday. He denied a motion for a hearing and ordered pleadings due by the end of this week.

The motion for preliminary injunction said that the creation of majority-white cities such as Brookhaven dilutes the voting power of black citizens.

Each of the six new cities in DeKalb and Fulton counties incorporated since 2005 have put high-income residents into majority white municipalities where they could elect white leaders, despite living in majority black counties, according to the motion. The new jurisdictions—called municipal voting districts–weaken the political strength of black voters, the motion said.

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform has placed Georgia in the middle of its rankings of states’ tort systems as perceived by the business community.

The Peach State garnered a ranking of 24, which is a higher spot than in the last decade and a better ranking than most other southeastern states. Read more »

This just in from the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: a decision on Georgia’s immigration law.

The decision upholds an injunction against Section 7 of the law, which made it illegal to transport or harbor an illegal alien in Georgia. But it reverses an injunction against Section 8 of the law, which authorizes law enforcement officers to investigate the immigration status of criminal suspects who cannot provide particular documents to prove their status.

In conclusion, Judge Charles Wilson wrote: “The illegal-immigration issues that our country faces today are, no doubt, exceptionally important to both the state and federal governments. As a federal court, we do not sit in judgment of the policy decisions of state legislatures, and we are usually reluctant to conclude that states are forbidden from enacting statutes related to activities within their borders. However, when state laws intrude into areas of overwhelming federal interest and erode the discretion implicit in the sovereignty of the country, we must recognize the supremacy of federal law. Here, section 7 of H.B. 87 cannot be reconciled with the federal immigration scheme or the individual provisions of the INA. As a result, we affirm in part the district court’s order preliminarily enjoining enforcement of section 7. We reverse in part the portion of that order enjoining section 8. This case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings.”

Nine non-profit agencies that provide civil legal services throughout Georgia will receive more than $1.7 million in state grants from the Judicial Council of Georgia in the upcoming fiscal year starting July 1.

The grant money will go toward providing legal services and domestic violence training, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.

“These grants, for the past 13 years, have been crucial in helping the least amongst us get the help they need to keep their families safe and remain productive citizens,” said attorney Linda Klein, a former State Bar of Georgia president who helped lobby the state Legislature to provide the initial grant in 1999.

The nine agencies receiving grant money are: Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Gateway House in Gainesville, Georgia Law Center for the Homeless in Atlanta, Georgia Legal Services Program in Atlanta, Northeast Georgia Shelter Collaborative, Northwest Georgia Family Crisis Center in Dalton, Peace Place in Winder, Salvation Army of Central Georgia in Macon and Wayne County Protective Agency/Fair Haven in Jesup.

The executive order signed by Governor Nathan Deal reassembling the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform adds several new members, including more prosecutors, a sheriff and his son—Northeastern Judicial Circuit Judge Jason Deal.

The order also mandates the now 21-member board to submit a report to the governor’s office, speaker of the House, lieutenant governor, chief justice of the state Supreme Court and chief judge of the state Court of Appeals by Dec. 31.

The criminal justice reform efforts began in the winter of 2011, shortly after Deal took office. He and other state leaders were motivated by the state’s growing incarceration rate and related cost.

The original council, which was legislatively created in the 2011 session, had 13 members, who were appointed by the governor, speaker, lieutenant governor and chief justice. The council met frequently last year and released the first report in November,
which yielded overhaul legislation known as House Bill 1176 in the 2012 session of the General Assembly that included the creation of a statewide system of accountability courts, a weight-based scheme for drug possession prosecution and more sentencing options for nonviolent offenders.

The complete membership of the reassembled council is:

- Fulton County Superior Court Judge Todd Markle*, who is also former executive counsel to Gov. Deal

- Douglas County District Attorney David McDade*

- State Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein*

- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Hamrick*, R-Carrollton

- Rep. Jay Powell*, R-Camilla, who is also a former mayor of Camilla

- State Bar of Georgia President Ken Shigley*

- State Court of Appeals Judge Mike Boggs*

- Senate Ethics Committee Chairman John Crosby*, R-Tifton

- Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver*, D-Decatur

- Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville*

- Sen. Ronald Ramsey*, D-Decatur

- Rep. Willie Talton*, R-Warner Robins

- Judicial Qualifications Commission member Linda Evans*

- Clayton County Juvenile Court Judge Steven Teske

- Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter

- Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry

- Northeastern Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Jason Deal

- Lowndes County Solicitor-General Justo Cabral

- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs

- Governor’s Deputy Executive Counsel David Werner

- House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta

(*= original members)

The order names Werner and Boggs as co-chairmen of the council. Markle was chairman last year.

A measure that aims to close down stores that run casino-like computer games is now law.

Governor Nathan Deal on Wednesday signed into law Senate Bill 431, which closes loopholes in Georgia’s gambling statutes used by phone card and Internet café businesses to offer games including slots and roulette. Deal ordered a crackdown on these stores last August when he called on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to target them with existing anti-gambling statutes.

The new law’s constitutionality may soon be challenged in court. Attorney Ed Garland, who is representing the owner of a phone card
company who was indicted in DeKalb County in March, has said the measure violates equal protection rights because it carves out an exception for publicly traded companies, such as McDonald’s, that have total assets of more than $100 million.

Businesses that ran the games claimed they were legitimate under Georgia laws allowing for promotional sweepstakes, similar to McDonald’s Monopoly game. These businesses provided gaming credits to customers who bought calling cards or Internet time, and those credits could be used to win cash prizes through computerized versions of Las Vegas-style games.

According to the new law, promotions that use computers, mechanical devices or electronic devices are considered unlawful lotteries.

Georgia could see its incarceration rate and costs lowered over the next five years as recently signed legislation kicks in, channeling low-level, nonviolent offenders away from prison and toward treatment and rehabilitation programs.

Gov. Nathan Deal signed the criminal justice reform bill (House Bill 1176) this afternoon in the north wing of the Capitol. Among the bill’s provisions are the creation of statewide drug and mental health court programs, increased felony thresholds for property crimes such as theft and shoplifting and a weight-based system of drug possession prosecution that allows for lower sentences for smaller amounts.

Estimates released in late March pegged the state’s cost savings at $264 million over the next five years.Later, in front of a smaller audience, Deal signed Senate Bill 383, which creates specific provisions for conducting international commercial arbitration in Georgia. Prior to the bill’s passage by the 2012 Georgia General Assembly, Deal voiced support for a multi-law firm coalition seeking to make Atlanta a premier venue for alternative dispute resolution among international companies.

The various provisions of the criminal justice overhaul legislation will go into effect at different times. The statewide accountability court systems and the new felony thresholds will start this July. The weight-based drug possession scheme will start on July 1, 2013, for Schedule I and II drugs and on July 1, 2014, for Schedule III through V drugs.

The international commercial arbitration bill goes into effect on July 1.

State Bar of Georgia President Ken Shigley attended both bill signings. Both measures found support from the bar.

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Governor Deal signs HB 954 into law as the bill's supporters watch.

Today was sensitive social issue day at the governor’s office, with Gov. Nathan Deal signing into law bills addressing abortion and assisted suicide.

HB 954 generally prohibits abortion after 20 weeks from the date of fertilization. An earlier version of the bill made exceptions to the ban only to preserve the life of an unborn child or to “[a]vert the death of the pregnant woman or avert serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.”

In a last-minute compromise, lawmakers added an exception for “medically futile” pregnancies, in which the unborn child “has a profound and irremediable congenital or chromosomal anomaly that is incompatible with sustaining life after birth.”

The final version of the bill signed by Deal still specifies that a woman’s mental or emotional health, including the prospect of suicide, cannot be a basis for meeting the mother’s health exception.

Opponents of the legislation argued that the bill violated Supreme Court precedent on the grounds that the 20-week mark is prior to fetal viability (a premise challenged by the bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens) and that the women’s health exception is too narrow. But most of the similar laws passed by other states in recent years have not been challenged in court.

HB 1114 bans assisted suicide, making it a felony to help someone take their own life. The legislation was proposed after the Georgia Supreme Court in February struck down as unconstitutional the state’s statute that made it a felony to help someone end his life after first publicly offering such assistance. Noting then that assisted suicide wasn’t banned outright, the court said the old statute impermissibly targeted free speech.