Hb 479: Repeal of Georgia's Citizen's Arrest Law

• Jurisdiction: Georgia,United States
• Citation: Vol. 38 No. 1
• Publication year: 2022
• topic: Criminal procedure

HB 479: Repeal of Georgia's Citizen's Arrest Law

Alex Beato
Abeato1@student.gsu.edu

Melissa Davies
mdavies2@student.gsu.edu

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criminal procedure

Arrest of Persons: Amend Title 17 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Relating to Criminal Procedure, so as to Revise Certain Arrest Powers; Provide for Arrests by a Law Enforcement Officer Outside of the Jurisdiction of his or her Employing Law Enforcement Agency under Certain Circumstances; Revise the Grounds for Arrest by a Private Person; Repeal in its Entirety Article 4 of Chapter 4, Relating to Arrest by Private Persons; Provide for Definitions; Provide for the Detaining of Certain Persons Reasonably Suspected of Having Committed Certain Crimes under Certain Circumstances; Provide for Procedures; Conform a Reference; Amend Article 5 of Chapter 2 of Title 35 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Relating to Motor Carrier Compliance Division, so as to Provide for the Powers of Detention by a Weight Inspector; Amend Chapter 38 of Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Relating to Operators of Private Detective Businesses and Private Security Businesses, so as to Repeal Certain Powers of Detention for Licensees or Registrants under Such Chapter; Amend Article 4 of Chapter 7 of Title 51 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Relating to Detention or Arrest on Suspicion of Shoplifting or Film Piracy, so as to Provide for Certain Immunity from Liability for Certain Owners and Operators of Retail Establishments and Food Service Establishments and Their Agents and Employees for the Detention of Certain Individuals; Provide for Related Matters; Provide for an Effective Date and Applicability; Repeal Conflicting Laws; and for Other Purposes.

Code Sections: O.C.GA. §§ 17-4-20 (amended); -4-60 (repealed), -4-80 (new); 35-2-105 (amended); 43-38-13 (repealed); 51-7-60 (amended)

Bill Number: HB 479

Act Number: 264

Georgia Laws: 2021 Ga. Laws 625

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Summary: The Act revises private arrest powers and repeals the Georgia Citizen's Arrest Law in its entirety. The Act provides certain arresting powers for law enforcement officers when acting outside of their jurisdiction. In addition, the Act clarifies detention powers for shopkeepers of retail, food service establishments, and other business entities under certain circumstances.

Effective Date: May 10, 2021

History

On February 23, 2020, two armed residents near Brunswick, Georgia pursued and shot Ahmaud Arbery, a twenty-five-year-old Black man.¹ Initially, the local district attorney used Georgia's citizen's arrest law to justify the shooting.² After a video of the incident surfaced, however, the police arrested and charged Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William Bryan for the murder of Mr. Arbery.³ Although not named after Mr. Arbery, House Bill (HB) 479, a part of "Ahmaud's legacy," serves as an "agent of change."⁴ The shooting of Mr. Arbery and the misuse of Georgia's citizen's arrest law brought the law to the forefront of lawmakers' attention.⁵

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Initially passed in 1863, Code section 17-4-60 (Georgia's citizen's arrest law) allowed private citizens to "apprehend a suspect without a warrant" so long as the citizen acted upon "reasonable and probable ground of suspicion" that the suspect committed a felony.⁶ The law has been continuously reenacted over the last century and a half with little revision.⁷ Referred to by many lawmakers across the state as "outdated and antiquated," the law was created when Georgia, and the country, lacked organized police forces.⁸ Given the lack of organized police forces, law enforcement could take days to arrive after the commission of a crime.⁹ Additionally, known racists created the law, and the law has been used throughout Georgia's history against Black Georgians.¹⁰ At the time of its enactment, the law allowed White Georgians to recapture slaves, and the Ku Klux Klan eventually used the statute to informally justify violence, including lynching, against Black Georgians.¹¹ The law rarely, if ever, has been asserted in formal court proceedings.¹² The racist history of Georgia's citizen's arrest law made its repeal inevitable.¹³

Now, Georgia has various organized police forces, and technological advances have made it possible for police to arrive at a potential crime scene in minutes.¹⁴ In other words, "there is less of a need for people to take the law into their own hands . . . than there was

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150 years ago."¹⁵ Most strikingly, the law's racial history justified violence that "has no place in Georgia."¹⁶ As Governor Brian Kemp (R) described it, the law was "ripe for abuse."¹⁷

In the summer of 2020, Chairperson Chuck Efstration (R-104th) led the Georgia House Judiciary Committee's efforts to learn about the origins and history of citizen's arrest.¹⁸ Along with the support of various groups and lawmakers, this work led Governor Kemp to release a bipartisan plan to repeal the statute in February 2021.¹⁹

HB 479 made its way through the Georgia General Assembly with little resistance from state legislators.²⁰ On the other hand, notable resistance came from sheriffs across Georgia.²¹ In response, former Representative Bert Reeves (R-34th) worked with the Georgia Sheriffs' Association and "made clear [the bill] does not change their other rights."²² Although Representative Reeves ensured that the language protected out-of-jurisdiction power, the Sheriffs' Association still did not endorse the bill.²³

HB 479 raised other concerns, including preservation of the right to self-defense and the defense of others, which sponsors and endorsers made clear that the bill would not affect.²⁴ Still, HB 479 held overwhelming support in both the House and the Senate, with only Senator Frank Ginn (R-47) voting against the bill.²⁵ The bill further

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demonstrates the bipartisan effort to show that Georgia is "too busy to hate."²⁶

Every state has a citizen's arrest law in "some form or fashion."²⁷ Yet, with the passage of HB 479, Georgia became the first state to repeal its citizen's arrest law.²⁸ Georgia is now leading the pack as "legislatures in South Carolina and New York started the process of [filing] repeals."²⁹

Bill Tracking of HB 479

Consideration and Passage by the House

Representatives Bert Reeves (R-34th), Don Hogan (R-179th), Carl Gilliard (D-162nd), Gloria Frazier (D-126th), Buddy DeLoach (R-167th), and William Boddie (D-62nd) sponsored HB 479 in the Georgia House of Representatives.³⁰ Representative Reeves introduced the bill into the House hopper on February 16, 2021.³¹ The House read the bill for the first time on February 17, 2021, and assigned it to the House Judiciary Committee.³² The House Judiciary Committee met on March 4, 2021, and a number of witnesses spoke on the bill during the committee meeting.³³ Representative Reeves then proposed several amendments.³⁴

First, he proposed lines 44-57, which allow law enforcement officers outside of their jurisdictions—specifically sheriffs—to continue to make arrests during "hot pursuit[s]" or when serving warrants.³⁵ This amendment eased the concern of the Georgia Sheriffs'

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Association regarding sheriff-jurisdictional-arrest power across Georgia.³⁶ Representative Reeves also proposed an amendment to Article 5 to clarify key terms in the bill, such as "food service establishment" and "law enforcement unit."³⁷

Lastly, House Judiciary Chairperson Chuck Efstration (R-104th) proposed a "friendly" amendment to fix a typo in the language of the bill.³⁸ The Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to pass the bill by substitute.³⁹ The Georgia House of Representatives passed the bill by substitute on March 8, 2021, by a vote of 173 to 0.⁴⁰

Consideration and Passage by the Senate

Senator Bill Cowsert (R-46th) sponsored the bill in the Senate.⁴¹ The Senate read the bill for the first time on March 9, 2021, and assigned the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee.⁴² The Judiciary Committee then met on March 18, 2021, and favorably passed the bill.⁴³ The full Senate voted 33 to 19 on the bill as provided by the House on March 29, 2021; however, Senator Lindsey Tippins (R-37th) offered an amendment after this vote.⁴⁴ Specifically, Senator Tippins suggested to replace line seventy-two with "retail establishment or a food service establishment . . . or any business owning personal property located on their own property or on the property of others on which they[] [are] conducting their business activities."⁴⁵ The amendment extends the privilege for retail or food establishments to include those that may need to detain a possible thief and "merely extends the right to preserve your own property by detaining those that

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unlawfully or illegally take property from a business either on their own property or on property on which they are conducting business activities."⁴⁶ The amendment also replaced lines 85-87 with the following language:

[A]n owner of any business entity operating on their own property or on the property of others on which they[] [are] doing business who have reasonable grounds to believe that the individual sought to be detained has committed or attempted to commit theft by taking as set forth in Code section 16-8-2 or theft of services as set forth in Code section 16-8-5.⁴⁷

On March 29, 2021, the Senate again voted on the amended bill, and it passed with a vote of 52 to 1.⁴⁸

Final Consideration and the Governor's Signature

On March 31, 2021, the bill, as amended by the Senate, went back to the House for a vote.⁴⁹ Representative Reeves moved that the House agree to HB 479 as amended by the Senate because the amendment created a "similar category . . . to businesses that have property that are doing business on their property or somebody else's property."⁵⁰ On that same day, the House passed the Senate amendment by a vote of 169 to 0.⁵¹ The House then sent the bill to Governor Brian Kemp (R) on April 9, 2021.⁵²

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Governor Kemp signed HB 479...