Eppinger’s felony case was again within the information final week after Fulton County District Lawyer Fani Willis criticized the choice to grant bond within the matter. Whereas particularly not criticizing the Justice of the Peace Courtroom choose within the case, Willis mentioned the method was indicative of issues in figuring out which defendants are saved in custody with out bail.
In Eppinger’s case, the choose mentioned she was initially not conscious of his full felony historical past, his supposed ongoing makes an attempt to interact in gang exercise from inside jail or his bond revocation for earlier offenses.
As soon as a fuller image of Eppinger’s background turned identified, together with his violation of probation ensuing from a string of 2016 violent felonies, the Justice of the Peace choose elevated his bond to $2 million, from the preliminary $400,000 that had been set.
Because the matter unfolded, the felony justice system appeared virtually as confused as a fearful public over what was occurring.
And that’s simply unacceptable.
A Fulton County deputy district lawyer apologized to the Justice of the Peace choose as a result of “essentially the most full set of data” was not initially out there to assist absolutely inform the bond choice.
The Eppinger case is only one instance of an issue that have to be mounted.
Civil order in society requires confidence within the public security and felony justice system that our tax {dollars} pay for.
The relentless assault of excessive charges of violent crime in recent times – together with stories of flawed communication of essential details about a defendant’s historical past – has badly broken the general public’s religion within the system.
Clearly, quick and thorough fixes are wanted, and this have to be a precedence of public officers and lawmakers alike.
Correct, up-to-date data is crucial to efficient crime-fighting, even when the stories generated lack the visible impression of flashing blue lights or officers stringing crime scene tape.
It shouldn’t be past the attain of the high-tech wizardry that’s omnipresent in our lives and workplaces to determine and preserve digital methods that present police, courts and the state corrections system with the suitable information they should do their jobs.
And their high precedence is to maintain Georgians protected.
There are some promising steps, provided that the Georgia Common Meeting this month handed Senate Invoice 441, which requires enhancements within the state’s felony justice database.
On the time of its passage, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan mentioned, “When judicial leaders would not have an entire image of a person’s felony historical past, the security of our communities is compromised.”
The brand new regulation requires forming a “Legal Case Knowledge Alternate Board” that might create and oversee “a statewide digital reporting course of for felony justice businesses, clerks of court docket, probation and parole supervision workplaces,” in accordance with an announcement from Duncan’s workplace.
The push for the regulation got here after investigative stories by The Atlanta Journal-Structure discovered issues with the established order right here. A January information story started by reporting that “Georgia’s database of felony histories is crammed with data gaps that make the data unreliable for the state’s judges, employers and probation officers.”
In Fulton County alone, our reporting discovered that the felony data system had no closing outcomes reported for greater than 1.5 million prices, about 40% of the Fulton prices within the state database. About 19,000 prices with lacking data have been for severe violent felonies.
Statewide, for practically 7 million entries within the felony data database no disposition of the instances had been entered. That’s greater than 1 in 4 prices statewide. And in 17 Georgia counties, fewer than 60% of prices had tendencies filed, in accordance with Georgia Bureau of Investigation report playing cards for every county.
As you’ll be able to see, this downside is just not new. A 2019 report by the Atlanta Repeat Offender Fee famous “incomplete and inaccurate data by businesses all through the method” from arrest by way of trial.
Fulton County Superior Courtroom Chief Choose Christopher S. Brasher testified earlier than a state legislative committee final October that “we’d like higher data so we will make higher selections.” Pete Skandalakis, government director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia instructed The Atlanta Journal-Structure for a January story that “it’s an issue that must be addressed.”
SB 441, which awaits Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature, presents at the very least a begin towards fixing this downside of public security and, by inference, public confidence.
Even with some pending fixes within the making, it’s vital to notice that it’s not solely information issues that want correcting.
An comprehensible worry of violent crime is now forcefully driving the expectations and actions of the general public, politicians and numerous civic gamers.
Starting to repair this disaster would require not solely enhancements to data methods and interagency collaboration, but in addition an unwavering dedication to public security and the widespread good – versus finger-pointing for political profit.
Whereas we wait, these issues – and the violence we’re enduring – continues.
It should cease. In spite of everything, every of us deserves to really feel protected.
The Editorial Board.
