State Lawmakers Weigh Change to Death Penalty Law

Long-time Atlanta defense attorney Jack Martin said while Georgia was the first state to ban the execution of what the law calls the “mentally retarded”, the statute was poorly drafted.

“Because we’re going to put this standard of beyond a reasonable doubt which means we have to be absolutely certain before we get that. So we have to admit that the policy of this burden of proof from the long history is that we’re saying okay, we’re okay with executing a few mentally retarded people. I just don’t think that’s right. I don’t think that’s what we really believe.”

But area prosecutors such as Gwinnett’s district attorney Danny Porter said even expanding the definition of mental disability in the law is problematic.

“We don’t know where that expansion is going to go and so we offer caution regarding cracking open a statute that has been litigated, that has been upheld all the way to the United States Supreme Court and that has been tested and tried.”

Rita Young with All About Developmental Disabilities told the committee, the debate is not about getting rid of the death penalty.

“If you look to our southern states, South Carolina Alabama, Texas and Virginia, they bear the burden of proof with a preponderance of evidence. We just want Georgia come in line with the rest of our southern states are doing.”

Other discussion items included the use of an IQ assessment and whether or not defendants would raise mental disability claims in all criminal cases.

After the hearing, WABE’s Michell Eloy spoke with lawmakers.

For now the main issue is changing the standard from beyond reasonable doubt to preponderance of the evidence, a lower legal burden.

“We’ve learned a lot about intellectual disability, mental illness,” said Republican Rep. Rich Golick, who chairs the House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee. “We know a heck of a lot more now than we did a generation ago, that’s for sure, and it would make sense for our laws to be consistent with that increased knowledge that we’ve gained over the course of a generation.”

However, Golick echoed concerns rose in testimony by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia that changing the standard of proof can be kept to death penalty cases alone, potentially opening a floodgate of cases for retrial.

“How many cases are we potentially looking at? That’s something we need to look at ahead of time and have that as part of our decision making process,” Golick said.

Committee Vice-Chair Republican Rep. B.J. Pak is vice chair of the committee says that should be a secondary concern.

“I don’t think that should be the primary reason why we don’t look at whether or not a particular piece of legislation should be changed,” Pak said.

Pak said more discussion is needed before legislators can take action.

Georgia is the only state that requires proof of mental disability beyond reasonable doubt – the highest burden of proof.

At this time, no legislation to change that standard has been proposed.