Three trial judges from the Republic of Georgia and the chairman of the Georgia Common Courts are visiting Cobb County Superior Court to observe a jury trial before Superior Court Judge Ann Harris.
The visit comes as part of a cooperative effort among the Georgian judiciary, the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training and the State of Georgia’s Administrative Office of the Courts.
This program was developed as an initiative to promote the transparency and independence of the Republic of Georgia justice system, to assist the Georgian judiciary in court and jury trial management and to strengthen the rule of law in the Republic of Georgia, according to a county statement.
The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia is assisting the Republic of Georgia judiciary by conducting a series of activities to help support this effort.
Together with the Georgia AOC, they selected a small team of judges to train and mentor the Georgian judges over the course of the project which is expected to last several months.
Cobb Senior Superior Court Judge Jim Bodiford put together the team that includes, in addition to Harris, Cobb Senior Superior Court Judge Jack Partain, Cobb State Court Judge Ben Studdard and AOC Assistant Director Mike Cuccaro.
In February, this team spent a week in the Republic of Georgia, observing court proceedings and consulting with their counterparts on a variety of judicial and courtroom management subjects.
While visiting metro Atlanta, the Georgian judges are spending several days in Cobb County observing a murder trial before Harris, then traveling to McDonough to observe court proceedings before Studdard.
Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia has been developing a criminal justice system modeled after the U.S. system.
Jury trials are a fairly new way of handling cases for the Georgians and, until recently, were used only in cases of murder and public corruption.
“Our hope is some of our experience – both good and bad – will be useful to the Georgian judiciary as they work to strengthen their own jury trial process,” Harris said. “Nevertheless, we have all been impressed with the great progress the Georgians have made in such a short time in implementing jury trials in their country and look forward to continuing our partnership with them.”
Information: 770-528-8101, Amanda.Marshall@CobbCounty.org.
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