Wednesday, January 8, 2003

Special days are ahead for the upcoming session of the Georgia General Assembly. We embark upon this new session with Republican control of the state Senate and the Governor's mansion. While Gov. Perdue has his plate full with a tight budget, ethics, education reform and redistricting, there are other opportunities, unprecedented in recent years.

As the elected Republican prosecutor for Fayette County, I am aware of several other legislative matters which will come before the legislature. One is equal strikes in criminal cases.

In case you are unaware, Georgia is one of only four states in the nation which gives a defendant in a criminal case twice the number of chances to eliminate or strike prospective jurors in a trial than is afforded the prosecution.

In the past similar bills have passed the Senate, but never have gotten out of committee in the state House of Representatives. One year there were 110 cosponsors of the equal strikes bill, out of 180 house members. Still the bill never got out of committee, because former Speaker of the House Tom Murphy, D-Breman, vowed that as long as he was Speaker, the bill would never get out of committee. Tom Murphy, defeated this fall in his bid for reelection, will no longer be Speaker of the House.

Currently in a felony case, the prosecution receives six general strikes compared to a defendant's 12 strikes, and in a misdemeanor case, the prosecution receives two strikes compared to four for a defendant. Not only is this not a fair playing field for the citizens of the state of Georgia, it starts a trial in an unfair posture for victims of crimes.

If the legislature levels the field by giving each side six strikes in a felony case, and two in a misdemeanor case, it would reduce the costs of a trial by reducing the total number of jurors needed for a trial, speed up the process of a trial, and give victims equal opportunity for a fair trial.

The second piece of legislation which concerns the trial process is open and full discovery in misdemeanor cases.

Currently my office has an open file policy in which we allow virtually every criminal defendant or attorney to look into the case file, hiding nothing. The law requires that upon request that a prosecutor must supply the defendant with a copy of the charges, list of witnesses, any and all information favorable to a defendant, and copies of all scientific reports in the prosecutor's possession.

In a felony case, the law requires reciprocal discovery; i.e., the defendant must also provide the prosecutor a list of his witnesses, and any scientific reports. Full and open discovery prevents trial by ambush by either the prosecution or the defense. Reciprocal discovery is needed in misdemeanor cases.

A prosecutor's ethical obligation is to seek justice, not merely to seek a conviction. In the process of seeking justice with honor, this legislature must treat both sides equally. Our victims deserve no less.

Please contact your local legislator or senator and urge them to support these two pieces of legislation. Let them know that you and I as residents of the Griffin Judicial Circuit will be watching to see what they do with this new legislative opportunity for change.

Steven L. Harris

Fayette County Solicitor General