As part of his anti-gang push, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp wants prosecutors to be able to charge crimes across multiple counties and to be able to seek the death penalty for murders committed during gang activity.
The Republican Kemp plans Thursday to roll out the proposals, descriptions of which were obtained by The Associated Press.
Some see Kemp's tough-on-crime message as a throwback to earlier Republican policies that would jail more people, going against a more recent trend led in Georgia by Gov. Nathan Deal to reduce harsh sentences. Others say the state should differentiate, pursuing lenient policies for non-violent criminals, but harsher sanctions for the worst offenders.
Some of moves were telegraphed well in advance. For example, Kemp wants to clarify that each separate act listed in the state's 2010 anti-gang law could be prosecuted as a separate offense, allowing judges to give hefty prison sentences for gang members. Each additional charge can bring three to 15 more years in prison.
Allowing prosecutors in one county to charge crimes in other counties is also something the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had asked for earlier.
Murders committed during gang activity would be added to the list of other crimes tied to a murder that make a convicted killer eligible for execution, such as rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, murder-for-hire or killing a law enforcement officer.
One bill would also expand the state's power to seize property and put people who commit sex crimes as part of gang activity onto Georgia's sexual offender registry.
A second bill would create a legal division at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and allow those GBI lawyers to serve as special prosecutors for gang crimes when requested. Currenlty, the GBI only investigates crimes.
However, Kemp's proposals would not give the GBI the power to begin investigating gang crimes without an invitation from local officials, as is needed now. GBI Director Vic Reynolds on Wednesday said he favors such power.
“I think to fight criminal street gangs, the best thing is for the bureau to have the authority," Reynolds said.
The second bill would also extend the power of campus police officers 880 yards beyond the boundaries of school property, a move the Kemp administration says would allow schools including Georgia State University and Georgia Tech do more to combat crime at the edges of their campuses.
In addition to the new laws, Kemp wants to increase GBI spending by more than $1 million to add seven new employees to the gang task force and to create a gang database that investigators could use to share information.
Kemp spent a significant portion of his State of the State speech on Jan. 16 arguing that gangs are “a statewide threat that undermines our safety and our future.”
Authored by JEFF AMY, Associated Press. Photo: Kemp with his wife Marty as he takes the oath of office as Georgia's 83rd governor. Credit: Georgia National Guard