CREDENTIALS
Legislative Update: Crossover Day Recap and Key Bills to Watch
We have officially crossed over! Yesterday was Crossover Day—the deadline for bills to pass from one chamber to the next to remain eligible for passage this session. The remaining 12 legislative days will be used to consider bills still viable for passage.
We will stay vigilant in monitoring the progress of all legislation eligible for consideration until Sine Die on April 4. This includes keeping watch for any bill amendments or substitutions that would effectively revive legislation from bills that didn’t cross over. See below a full report on which bills crossed over and which failed to pass favorably before the deadline.
For daily or weekly updates (your choice), be sure to subscribe to our bill tracker if you haven’t already. To discuss which bills survived, which didn’t, and advocacy opportunities before Sine Die, join us for Talk Justice Tuesday on March 11 at 6 p.m.
Bills that Survived Crossover Day
We Support
- HB 123 is the result of decades of advocacy by committed organizations, attorneys and community members to align Georgia with the rest of the country to protect people with intellectual disability (“ID”) from facing the death penalty. The bill would lower the standard of proof for establishing ID from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to “preponderance of the evidence” and separate the determination of ID from the guilt phase. The Senate has referred the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which could hold a hearing on the bill as early as next week. We look forward to your continued support of this legislation as it moves through the Senate!
- HB 535 addresses the Georgia Court of Appeals’ case in Kellum v. State (2023), which has led to inconsistency when calculating “time served” credit for the time someone is incarcerated while awaiting a probation revocation hearing. HB 535 would ensure they be given full credit for each day served in confinement after the alleged probation violation, which is the same way it is calculated in all other contexts.
- HB 162 would require automatic restriction and sealing of court records when someone is sentenced under the First Offender Act. It also allows people sentenced under the Act prior to July 1, 2025, to petition the sentencing court to restrict and seal the records. In addition to the court ordering that court records be sealed, it would also order records maintained by law enforcement agencies, jails, and detention centers be restricted and unavailable to the public.
- HB 176 addresses the Georgia Supreme Court decision in in Cook v. State (2022), which left defendants with no ability to appeal if their attorney misses the deadline for filing a notice of appeal. Under this bill, a defendant who missed the deadline for filing a motion for a new trial or notice of appeal would be allowed to file an “out-of-time motion” under certain circumstances.
We Oppose
- SB 61 – Under current law, 13–17-year-old kids are charged as adults in superior court and not juvenile court if they are charged with any of ten designated offenses. SB 61, branded as a “school safety bill,” would drastically increase the scope of this law that inserts children into the adult criminal legal system. Not only would SB 61 add ”aggravated assault with a firearm” and “terroristic act upon a school” to the list of offenses, but it would also add “attempt” or “conspiracy to commit” any of the designated offenses.
- Note that HB 627 originally included similar language, but the version of House 627 that passed the House had removed the objectionable language. We will continue to monitor HB 627, and if problematic amendments or substitutes are made in the Senate, we will oppose the bill.
- Note that HB 268 is another “school safety bill” that we are watching closely. It is much broader and more comprehensive than SB 61. Although the bill contains positive provisions—like mandatory suicide prevention training and requiring school safety plans to include provisions addressing behavioral health needs of students and staff—there are aspects of HB 268 that raise concerns about student privacy, due process rights, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Significant amendments will need to be made to HB 268 before we can support it.
- SB 9 & HB 171 make distributing, soliciting, or even possessing an AI-generated depiction of someone who appears to be a child “engaging in sexually explicit behavior” a felony punishable by 1-15 years of imprisonment. The existing law that criminalizes the same conduct for images or video of actual children is punishable by 1-20 years, but it includes an exception for children in possession of sexually explicit images of themselves or of another minor. SB 9 & HB 171 provide no such exception for kids. These bills are supposedly about protecting kids, but sending high schoolers to prison for doing teenage things is not protecting kids.
- SB 27 – Under this bill, it would be a misdemeanor to post another person’s personally identifying information “with reckless disregard for whether the information would be reasonably likely to be used by another party” to cause “economic injury or mental anguish.” This new crime of “doxing” would be a felony punishable by 1-3 years imprisonment if the intent was for another person to use the personally identifying information to cause the person harm. This is an incredibly broad prior restraint on speech that almost certainly would chill protected speech.
- SB 268 – Under this bill, anyone being within 25 feet of an officer who gives them a “verbal warning not to approach” risks arrest for the offense of “interference with a first responder.” The offense would require that the person breaching the 25-foot “buffer zone” to have criminal intent, such as intent to “impede or interfere with the first responder’s ability to perform [their] duty.” Flimsy intent elements like this are typical in minor offenses that have been weaponized against over-policed communities for several decades. This law would be used to intimidate and retaliate against people attempting to hold police accountable or merely expressing concern for a friend or loved one’s safety.
- SB 29 would mandate that everyone booked for a felony charge have their DNA collected for a statewide database.
- SB 204 would allow for a large portion of felonies to be charged by accusation of the district attorney rather than indictment by a grand jury. Grand juries do not always decide to indict someone the prosecution seeks to charge. For that reason, grand juries are an important check on the state’s power that protects people from prosecution without probable cause.
- HB 161 would expand the offenses for which GBI can issue subpoenas for electronic communication records. It also provides that failure to comply with the subpoena can result in “contempt of court” even though these subpoenas aren’t issued by a court or with court oversight. If state law enforcement agencies want access to Georgians’ private information, they should get a warrant.
- SB 185 bans transgender people incarcerated in GA prisons from receiving medically necessary and appropriate treatment, including hormone therapy.
There are many many bills that did not successfully survive Crossover Day, but it’s important to restate two important caveats:
- Lawmakers regularly amend bills that survive Crossover to include language from bills that didn’t crossover—essentially reviving the proposed legislation.
- Bills that do not become law this year are viable for passage next year, in the second year of the biennial session.
This means that we remain vigilant about all legislation until the last day of the session.
We will continue to keep you updated on our social media on how you can take action to support our efforts. Also, be sure to subscribe to our bill list for email updates so you don’t miss any major developments or upcoming hearings!