Georgia lawmaker revives wrongful conviction compensation bill with penalties for disqualified DAs

Yahoo

28-03-2025

Sen. Brandon Beach, recently appointed U.S. Treasurer by President Donald Trump, amended a bill by Rep. Katie Dempsey to allow for wrongful conviction compensation when district attorneys are subsequently disqualified. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
A bill that would grant compensation to wrongfully convicted Georgians was just given a second chance after lawmakers spliced it into a bill inspired by President Donald Trump's election interference case in Georgia.
Senate Bill 244, which is aimed at allowing criminal defendants to recoup their legal costs if the prosecuting attorney in their case is disqualified for personal or professional misconduct, now includes the bulk of House Bill 533, which would establish a standardized process in Georgia state law for people who have been exonerated. It passed out of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee in a contentious vote Thursday afternoon.
House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have faced an uphill battle in their efforts to properly compensate those who have been wrongfully incarcerated. The process is currently done on a case-by-case basis through individual compensation resolutions that must pass through the full legislative process like any other bill. Legislation to standardize the process was initially introduced by Atlanta Democratic Rep. Scott Holcomb in 2022, and re-introduced in 2023, but his efforts have repeatedly been stalled in the Senate by Republican opposition.
This year, HB 533, also known as the Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act, was sponsored by Rome Republican Rep. Katie Dempsey. It passed through the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee unanimously ahead of Crossover Day but never made it to a vote on the House floor. House lawmakers did, however, overwhelmingly pass a measure that included individual compensation resolutions for five people who served time in prison after being wrongfully convicted.
In contrast, SB 244 was sponsored by state Sen. Brandon Beach, an Alpharetta Republican and staunch Trump ally who was recently appointed by the president to serve as U.S. Treasurer. It was originally aimed solely at allowing criminal defendants to recoup their legal costs in the event that the prosecuting attorney in their case was disqualified as a result of 'improper conduct.' The bill, Beach said, was inspired by Trump's election interference case in Georgia, in which Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified after an appeals court judge found that her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a ''significant' appearance of impropriety.'
'When you think about somebody getting indicted, it's somewhat of a scarlet letter,' Beach said at a committee hearing on the bill Tuesday. 'It is tough. It can ruin your life, and it can definitely cost you a lot in attorney's fees to defend yourself. And so I just am doing this so that people that have been wrongly accused and then the case goes away, they have some type of ability to recoup some of their fees and reasonable cost.'
Democratic lawmakers on the committee objected to Beach's portion of the bill, pointing out that the bill would benefit Sen. Shawn Still, a Johns Creek Republican who was indicted in the Fulton County election interference case alongside Trump and 17 other codefendants.
'My concern is that we are specifically aiding one of our colleagues, not to mention the issue that Rep. Dempsey and Rep. Holcomb's bill is essentially being used, essentially, as political extortion,' said Rep. Esther Panitch, a Sandy Springs Democrat.
Democrats also raised concerns about the disproportionate impact the law would have on smaller counties with more limited budgets, as well as fears that local district attorneys could be discouraged from prosecuting complicated cases out of fear of having to cover the cost of defendant's attorney fees, but they ultimately failed to successfully amend the bill.
Dempsey also made an effort to distance her language from Beach's proposal as she presented the substitute bill to the committee.
'This is truly quite separate from the measure that Senator Beach has on the front,' Dempsey said. 'This is a completely different conversation. We are not trying to target anyone. We are trying to take a process and make it fair and remove it from the hands of the Legislature and put it into administrative law judges' hands, who are much better skilled and equipped to handle those decisions.'
Though Dempsey said she was grateful that the language regarding wrongful convictions has a second chance to pass through the Legislature this year, she admitted that it may be an uphill battle to get the bill through both chambers before the 2025 legislative session ends on April 4.
But in its new form, she has reason to be optimistic, she said.
'This bill is a priority for Senator Beach,' Dempsey said, adding that he could be instrumental to the bill's passage.
Deputy Editor Jill Nolin contributed to this report.