GA Citizen's Arrest Law Overhauled: Kemp

ATLANTA, GA — A bill overhauling Georgia's Civil War-era citizen's arrest statute — which was used to justify the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery — is now law.

Flanked by Arbery's mother and sister, Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 479 into law Monday. The bill repeals the ability for a private citizen — with a few exceptions — to be able to hold someone they suspect committed a crime, while still allowing Georgians to protect themselves and their property from those who may harm them.

"As you all know, one year ago, a viral video shocked the world and the hearts of so many in our state," Kemp said during the bill signing ceremony Monday. "Georgians and Americans in communities across the country watched in horror as the killing of Ahmaud Arbery was brought to light on our phone screens and TV broadcasts. Ahmaud was the victim of a vigilante-style violence that has no place in our country or in our state."

Among the sections of the reformed bill is one that allows law enforcement officers to make arrests outside of their jurisdiction under three specific circumstances:

• When an offense is committed in their presence or immediate knowledge
• When an officer is assisting law enforcement officials from a different jurisdiction
• When in "hot pursuit" of an offender and the offender travels outside the officer's jurisdiction

Another section of the bill completely repeals the current citizen's arrest statutes.

A third section outlines specific instances when private citizens are allowed to make a lawful arrest. Among others, this applies leeway to private security personnel to arrest suspects. Other situations include "shopkeeper's privilege" which empowers business owners and their employees to detain someone suspected of theft, or provision allowing restaurant owners to hold someone attempting to "dine and dash."

This section stipulates that the business owner must either call the police within an hour to take the detained individual into custody or release the person.

The reformed bill also states it does not hinder Georgia's "stand your ground" law defending self and property, but prohibits the use of force "that is likely to cause death or great bodily harm." More language in the proposed law protects businesses and business owners who invoke the law from civil litigation.

HB 479 garnered national attention after three white men — William "Roddie" Bryan Jr., Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael — chased down, cornered and killed Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, while he was on a jog in Brunswick last February.

After the incident, Gregory McMichael told the Glynn County Police Department — where he had been a police officer for several years — that the shooting happened because he suspected Arbery of robbery, according to the New Brunswick News. After the Glynn County district attorney recused herself, an outside prosecutor would not bring charges against any of the three men when they claimed self-defense and invoked the citizen's arrest law.

All three men were eventually arrested and indicted by a grand jury nearly three months after the killing on nine counts: malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. The case is now being handled by the Cobb County district attorney's office.

The men were also indicted on federal hate crime charges in late April following a FBI investigation.

"Today, we are replacing a Civil War-era law, ripe for abuse, with language that balances the sacred right to self-defense of a person and property with our shared responsibility to root out injustice and set our state on a better path forward," Kemp said Monday.

The trial in Arbery's death is set to begin in October.

Patch Manager Marcus Garner contributed to this article.

SEE ALSO:

• Jury Indicts All 3 Suspects In Ahmaud Arbery Fatal Shooting
• Federal Hate Crime Charges Filed in Ahmaud Arbery Killing
• Governor To Overhaul 'Citizens Arrest' Law
• Lead Prosecutor In Ahmaud Arbery Case Leaves Cobb DA's Office
• Ahmaud Arbery Shooting Death Trial To Start October: Reports