Atlanta, GA - Yesterday, the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College (“IIP”) filed an amicus brief in Fulton County, Georgia superior court in support of prosecutorial independence and the rights of local prosecutors to implement approaches supported by their communities.

The IIP’s amicus brief was filed in support of a lawsuit by the Public Rights Project on behalf of a bipartisan group of three Georgia prosecutors: District Attorney Sherry Boston (DeKalb County); District Attorney Jared Williams (Augusta Judicial Circuit); and District Attorney Jonathan Adams (Towaliga Judicial Circuit). The prosecutors have challenged SB 332, a new law that established Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission and imbued it with the power to sanction or remove locally-elected prosecutors. 

The IIP, represented pro bono by Proskauer, filed its amicus brief in support of the prosecutors’ motion for an injunction to prevent the commission from taking action. The IIP filed an amicus brief last year as well in support of Georgia prosecutors challenging an earlier version of the law, SB 92. That law was rendered moot by a Georgia Supreme Court ruling. 

“Georgia’s new law poses a grave threat to prosecutorial independence and undermines prosecutors’ ability to fulfill their legal and constitutional obligations. Prosecutors are entrusted to use their vast discretion to serve the needs of their communities; instead, this statute aims to restrict prosecutors to advance the preferences of state officials, ” said Rachel Marshall, executive director of the IIP. “Like other bills we are seeing in states across the country, this statute threatens to fundamentally alter the role of prosecutors in our legal system and prevent prosecutors from responding to the needs of their local communities. The IIP is proud to once again stand alongside local prosecutors in preserving prosecutorial independence and protecting local democracy.”

The IIP’s brief argues that the new law is an unlawful legislative incursion into prosecutorial authority that threatens the role of prosecutors in our legal system and will harm the communities they serve. The principle of prosecutorial discretion is foundational to the American legal system; Georgia’s new statute nonetheless hinders prosecutors from being able to make good faith decisions for their own communities.  The law also prevents prosecutors from speaking openly with their communities about policy and resource priorities, thus depriving the public of transparency from their elected officials and candidates.  In so doing, the law not only unlawfully and unfairly punishes prosecutors but also disempowers local communities that knowingly and voluntarily elected particular prosecutors with particular visions of how best to serve and protect them. 

In addition to the two amicus briefs it has filed in Georgia in the past year, the IIP has been active in protecting prosecutorial independence in other ways. The IIP’s executive director Rachel Marshall was recently appointed to the ABA Task Force on Prosecutorial Independence. The IIP has also hosted numerous events on the need to preserve prosecutorial discretion, including a recent webinar outlining some of the efforts to restrict prosecutorial discretion around the country.

Proskauer drafted and filed the brief pro bono with the assistance of Peter Canfield of Canfield Law LLC on behalf of the IIP.  

The full amicus brief is available on the IIP’s website.