Henry County DA’s office clears backlog

The Henry County District Attorney’s Office announced March 15 that it has cleared its pre-indictment pandemic backlog, formally charging more than a thousand cases with a new safe grand jury procedure. After halting grand jury proceedings in March of 2020 when Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold D. Melton declared a judicial emergency, District Attorney Darius Pattillo worked with Superior Court Judge Holly Veal and other court officials to create a new grand jury model that involved spreading jurors across multiple secure rooms in the courthouse while using an online platform to hear evidence while still voting in secret on indictments.

As of March 15, Henry County had indicted 695 felony cases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pattillo’s office is now back to its pre-pandemic schedule of one day per week for grand jury proceedings.