PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
  1. Signatures
    79 out of 100
    Petitioning
    1. Governor Deal, Georgia State Representatives, General Assembly of Georgia
  2. Created By
    Ellen Kubica
    Atlanta, GA
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

 

Fellow Georgians, we now need your help - CCBJ is a small voice and your voice is needed as well. It doesn't take a lot of time to work for better justice system, but it is time well spent.

Right now in Georgia (unlike in many other states) there simply is no protection against a wrongful execution based on eyewitness testimony. An advocacy group, Concerned Citizens for Better Justice (CCBJ), has over the last few months been engaging Georgia State Representatives and Senators on a law update that would eliminate the possibility of imposing the death penalty in cases based solely on eyewitness testimony. 

Research has proven that eyewitness testimonies are unreliable and often faulty, and according to the Innocence Project, eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide. If the State of Georgia wishes to sentence someone to death, there would have to be physical evidence linking the accused to the crime. 

We have secured very positive responses from several of Georgia Representatives and Senators. The chance for consideration of this update arrived when the Assembly convened on Monday, January 9th.  

Please sign this petition to add your voice on behalf of better justice for Georgia. 

Thank You! 

 

**********UPDATE******************************************************************

 

Our law proposal has been introduced as the Senate Bill 442.

 

 It has made it through Legal Review, Sponsorship, and a First Reading.

It is now "trapped" in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Unfortunately the bill is paralyzed in Committe. Crossover Day (the last day that a bill can make it's way out of committee for action this assembly) is only two weeks off. A strategy to defeat this bill and avoid controversy would be to just hold the bill captive until then appears to what some of the Senators may be trying to do.



Thanks so much for you who have already contributed in any way for your support. Please keep contacting your legislators to ask them to push this bill so that it can be voted on.

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Law reform concerning circumstantial evidence in capital punishment cases.

Greetings,

I just signed the following petition addressed to: Governor Deal, State Representatives of Georgia, General Assembly of Georgia


~ Resolution ~
regarding
Proposed Law Update to O.C.G.A. 17-10-30


Whereas, I strongly request that members of the Georgia General Assembly, both Democrat and Republican, move unilaterally during the 2012 session to put forth and pass legislation as described herein; and

Whereas, this legislation should strengthen the Georgia State Code in regard to providing better protection under the law as provided for under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; and

Whereas, this legislation should clearly establish irrefutable scientific, electronic, or other types of measurable evidence in the pursuit of a capital punishment case against an individual or individuals; and

Whereas, eyewitness and speculative evidence testimony should at the maximum only warrant the pursuit of a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole; and

Whereas, said passage should be used by all jurisdictions within the State of Georgia for the fair and verifiable dispensing of justice in our State.

Now therefore, I do respectfully submit my proper and legal names to this resolution as indicated below



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Sincerely,

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Additional Information:

Concerned Citizens for Better Justice

Mission Summary

Concerned Citizens for Better Justice is an advocacy group founded on the principles of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. This amendment provides for equal protection under the law. This principle should compel the state to use modern technology in the trying of an individual accused of a crime. To the highest degree possible this technology should be the basis by which to either ensure guilt or to discover innocence.

Likewise, modern technology should minimize the impact of eyewitness testimony in court room trials: in particular those trials in which the life of the accused is in the balance. Traditional eyewitness testimony has been found in more and more cases to be faulty: tragically resulting in many innocent individuals spending many years of their life imprisoned or even possibly executed.


Regardless of one's views regarding the morality or efficacy of capital punishment, the common theme and foundation of the American justice system is that all law and the punitive actions resultant there from should be equitable and based on the most modern scientific techniques available.

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