Mistake in Gwinnett County could impact 1,000 criminal cases

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Officials in Gwinnett County say they made a mistake, and nearly 1,000 criminal cases could be impacted.

Channel 2's Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Tony Thomas reports the issue surrounds the 2017 Georgia Supreme County ruling on how counties choose grand juries.

Officials with Gwinnett County said they recently realized the county wasn’t following the latest decision for several months.

Experts tell Channel 2 Action News that this could cause some issues, but nothing severe enough to toss out any criminal cases.

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“It was about six months, so that would probably be about 1,000 cases affected,” said District Attorney Danny Porter.

Porter said Gwinnett County clerks were following an old ruling that allowed counties to remove duplicate names and deceased jurors from the state-issued list of potential grand jurors.

The secret grand juries listen to cases and decide if prosecutors have enough basic evidence to go forward.

“It’s certainly going to be an issue that defense attorneys and appellate attorneys will become aware of,” Porter said.

And the attorneys could potentially use it to impact cases.

Prosecutors have taken action in two potential death penalty cases as a precaution.

The current grand jury -- picked with the correct method -- re-indicted Tiffany Moss on Wednesday.

She is set to face a trial this summer on charges she starved, then killed her daughter Emani in 2013.

“We are going to have to re-arraign it and reserve her on the death penalty notice,” Porter said.

Triple murder defendant Robert Bell was also re-indicted.

Lawyers Channel 2 Action News spoke with on Thursday hadn't heard about the issue. They said they didn't believe they would force big changes in most cases.

Porter doesn’t think so either, and he says he’ll take each case one at a time.

“I’ll litigate it and I think we will win,” Porter said.

Most lawyers said at worst, with most cases, the issue could clog up the grand jury system if prosecutors would have to go back and re-indict suspects.

Cox Media Group