Six Georgia lawmakers have filed legislation to make trafficking people for sexual servitude or for labor a crime punishable by death.
House Bill 1154 seeks to change the law by adding human trafficking to the list offenses eligible by the death penalty.
The bill is sponsored by State Representatives David Clark, Tyler Paul Smith, Joseph Gullet, Alan Powell, Derrick McCollum, and Karen Mathiak. All six of the lawmakers are Republicans. Clark, the bill’s lead sponsor, is currently running for higher office in Georgia.
Under Georgia law, human trafficking is punishable by ten to twenty years in prison and a $100,000 fine, unless the victim is under the age of eighteen. In those cases, the offense is punishable by twenty-five to fifty years in prison, or a life sentence, and up to $100,000 fine. Anyone convicted of trafficking for sexual servitude is also required to register as a sex offender and the courts often order offenders to pay restitution and forfeit property.
As Georgia’s statute reads today, the death penalty is only authorized for a very narrow set of offenses, including malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, rape, hijacking an aircraft, or crimes against the state, like treason.
But the statute conflicts with a Supreme Court ruling dating back to the 1970s. In Coker v. Georgia (1977), the U.S. Supreme Court held that imposing the death penalty for the rape of an adult where the victim did not die is unconstitutional, ruling that it is “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment.
Later decisions in other states, such as Kennedy v. Louisiana, extended that principle to bar the death penalty for most crimes against individuals where no death occurred.
Still, in Georgia, the list of offenses punishable by death remains on the books as the state legislature has never repealed the unconstitutional statutes. This legislation would add language to the list of offenses already deemed unconstitutional.
The bill has been assigned to the Judiciary Non-Civil committee. The bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Tyler Paul Smith, is Chairman of that committee.
