Senate committee considers expanding oversight of prosecutors to include victims' rights, open-records and impartiality standards

Senators debated whether to expand the prosecutorial oversight statute to include failures to make reasonable efforts to comply with the Crime Victims' Bill of Rights, open-records laws and certain discovery rules. Chair Curtis explained the committee substitute to SB605 seeks to give the prosecutorial oversight commission explicit authority to investigate and, where appropriate, sanction prosecutors for such failures. "What we've done is we've added failure to comply with the crime victims bill rights as another ground for discipline by the prosecuting attorney's counsel," Curtis said.

Several members and witnesses urged caution on definitions. Joe told the committee that changing the standard from "strictly comply" to "make reasonable efforts" is a more workable approach for smaller offices that lack staff: "Sometimes we're trying our best to comply, but maybe an assistant DA drops the ball or we're overwhelmed with volume of cases," he said. He and other witnesses asked for clearer definitions of "reasonable efforts" and "impartiality" to avoid unfairly penalizing resource-strapped offices.

Witnesses also discussed overlap with existing sanctioning systems. Joe and Pete Skandalakis noted that Rule 3.8 of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct already sets prosecutorial duties and that the state bar and Supreme Court can impose sanctions, but the substitute would create a parallel avenue through the oversight commission with its own investigatory and subpoena powers and procedural appeal rights. "I wouldn't say hesitation is the word," Joe said about applying Rule 3.8 to the commission's remit; "we've already got a system in place ... but again, that's something that I would want to throw out to the association as a whole."

Committee direction: Senators asked DA association leaders and PAC to confer with their memberships over the weekend and to return written feedback on definitions, anticipated burdens on small circuits and suggested draft language before the next committee meeting.