A proposal to curtail Georgia police officers' ability to influence grand jurors in police shooting cases passed the state Senate on Tuesday, sending the bill back to the state House for review with only a day left before lawmakers adjourn for the year.
House Bill 941 aims to curtail some of the most generous legal privileges afforded to officers anywhere in the country. Georgia law currently allows officers accused of possible crimes to sit in the grand jury hearing, listen to all the evidence against them and make a statement at the end that can't be questioned or challenged by prosecutors.
No other state allows such broad and favorable privileges for officers who appear before a grand jury to face possible charges.
Critics of the proposal say it doesn't go far enough to erase a legal double-standard that has allowed Georgia officers to escape prosecution for years. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News investigation in December identified 171 fatal police shootings of Georgia citizens since 2010 without any officer facing prosecution.
Tuesday was the second-to-last-day of the 2016 legislative session in Georgia. The last day is Thursday.
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