OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is refusing to take any responsibility for the deplorable conditions at the Atlanta-based jail where there have been at least 10 inmate deaths over the past year alone, choosing instead to blame state Republicans.
According to The Star News Network, Willis made her remarks to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in response to an investigation launched by the Georgia Senate earlier this year over the conditions found in the Fulton County Jail.
One of the defendants in Willis’ high-profile Young Slime Life (YSL) racketeering case was actually stabbed in jail this week, which will now delay the ongoing trial until 2024, according to USA Today.
“Those state senators should worry about the state prisons,” Willis, a Democrat, told the AJC, claiming they “are out of control.” She also complained that the investigation is “an extremely weak attempt to add a slap at this office” and “just politics.”
The Star Network added: Republicans have highlighted the backlog of cases in Willis’ office, which an official document revealed numbered nearly 150,000 earlier this year, for the extreme overcrowding and violence at the Fulton County Jail. After Trump and his allies were required to surrender and have mugshots taken at the jail, Georgia State Senator Brandon Beach said Willis is “obsessed” with prosecuting Trump “for her own political gain” to the jail’s detriment, adding that the backlog of cases resulted in a dangerous, “concentration camp” environment. Similarly, former U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler said Willis’ blind pursuit of Trump has “frozen” Fulton County courts and established “a two-tiered system of justice.”
In October, Georgia Republicans identified an alternative approach to address the actions of Willis regarding her charges against former President Donald Trump.
“Soon after the indictment against Trump and others was filed, discussions were underway to have Willis removed from office or face investigations and impeachment hearings over allegations of a partisan probe against the former president and frontrunner in the 2024 GOP primary,” Newsweek reported at the time.
One potential strategy being contemplated by certain GOP legislators involves the utilization of a law enacted by Republican Governor Brian Kemp in May. This law grants them the ability to establish a fresh commission vested with the power to dismiss local prosecutors who are deemed incapable of fulfilling their “constitutional and statutory obligations.”
According to a statement issued at that time, the office of Kemp asserted that the establishment of the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC), which is scheduled to commence the receipt of complaints regarding prosecutors as of October 1, will serve as a “beneficial oversight mechanism” for district attorneys in the state.
The AJC reported that a special Georgia Senate subcommittee is planning on investigating the dangerous conditions at the Fulton County Jail.
“Willis will likely face scrutiny over her use of resources and strategy in addressing an enormous backlog of cases that grew worse during the coronavirus pandemic,” the outlet reported.
“The DA is required by Georgia law to have a grand jury inspect the sanitary condition of the jail and the treatment of inmates, and it isn’t clear she’s carried out that duty,” state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, one of the chamber’s top Republicans, told the AJC. “She did find time and resources to pursue politically chosen cases when the jail has been deteriorating, resulting in deaths.”
Other Republicans sought to temper Democrat complaints, however, by noting that Willis isn’t going to be the sole focus of the probe.
“We don’t know the root cause of the challenges, so anything would be premature at this point. We will follow the facts,” state Sen. John Albers, who is leading the subcommittee with state Sen. Randy Robertson, told the outlet. “This issue is the conditions and deaths at the jail.”
