Appeals Division
The Appeals Division is responsible for representing the State of Georgia through the appellate process in the higher courts of the state and sometimes in the federal judicial system. In many instances, the prosecution of a criminal case does not end with a conviction at trial, especially death penalty cases. Appellate attorneys are also closely involved with the prosecution of death penalty cases, providing oversight to ensure compliance with Georgia's death penalty statute and complex trials to provide assistance on issues at trial. The enactment of O.C.G.A. § 35-1-37 (d) which created an administrative procedure for expungement of records is also handled in the Appeals Division. Appellate attorneys handle open records requests and record expungement petitions and the Deputy who oversees the division also coordinates the student intern program.

Child Support Recovery Unit
The Child Support Recovery Unit is responsible for securing court-ordered support for dependant children. This is accomplished pursuant to an agreement with the Child Support Services of Georgia. The attorneys assigned to this unit file orders for support, seek orders establishing paternity (where necessary), and petition the Court to enforce its orders by contempt.

Crimes Against Women & Children Unit
In recent years, as the issues of domestic violence and sexual abuse of women and children increasingly became topics of national concern, the Georgia Legislature passed a series of laws designed to provide for more accurate reporting of these crimes by law enforcement and to address the concerns of victims of these types of abuses. However, these provisions alone proved sadly lacking in truly confronting these terrible crimes as the legislation only related to aspects of the problem such as arrest requirements, victim notification, and potential compensation. Further, it was clear that a system designed to address the physical safety, economic well-being, and emotional needs of victims of these crimes was a long way off. It became evident that a more "holistic" approach to the prosecution of these types of offenders was needed-and perhaps nowhere more so in Georgia than in Fulton County.

Some brief statistics bear this out: In 1990 and 1991, approximately 1,739 rapes were reported in Fulton County. However, only 10% of these incidents were ever indicted by the then-Fulton County District Attorney. Of those that were indicted and tried, only 25% resulted in a conviction. Further, in 1996, this Office allowed approximately 1,200 victims of abuse and sexual assault to sign waivers of prosecution, thereby terminating the investigation and prosecution of their cases.

Offenses against children in Fulton County often met with the same fate. A terrible and well-known example of this is the sad case of five-year-old Terrance Bailey. Terrance had a long history of abuse, much of it reported to authorities, at the hands of his mother's boyfriend, Quinton Hunnicutt. In 1993, when one such instance of abuse was reported to this Office, the case was overlooked, and nothing was ever done to secure the child's safety. As a result of these missed opportunities, in 1996, following a terrifying hostage situation in which Hunnicutt held captive Terrance and his mother, the years of abuse culminated in Terrance's death at the hands of his abuser.

The perception that this Office was unwilling to or uninterested in prosecuting such crimes-after so many years of overlooking them-was widespread and firmly entrenched. Thus, it was painfully clear to current Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard when he took over this Office in January of 1997 that sweeping, immediate change was necessary if he was to restore public confidence in this Office's ability to protect its most vulnerable citizens.

As a result of this personal commitment to combating domestic violence and child abuse and in order to restore the community's trust, one of the first official acts of District Attorney Howard's administration was to end the use of waivers of prosecution. But reforms did not stop there.

In the most far-reaching of these, the District Attorney created a "Crimes Against Women & Children Unit," which adopted an entirely new approach to the prosecution of these types of offenses.

The Crimes Against Women and Children Unit is currently composed of one deputy district attorney who heads the unit, one chief senior assistant district attorney, seven other assistant district attorneys, six investigators, three specially assigned members of the Office's Victim-Witness Assistance Program, and a liaison with the Department of Family & Children Services. Five administrative and clerical staff members are assigned to assist the unit. The squad exclusively screens and develops cases involving sex offenses, domestic violence, and the abuse/homicides of children.

"Vertical prosecution," a technique also practiced by the Office's Major Felony Unit, is utilized to address the sensitive nature of these cases. Vertical prosecution depends upon early intervention, another key factor in the successful prosecution of cases of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and those involving children. The technique allows trained prosecutors to utilize checklists and protocols designed to elicit valuable information shortly after these offenses occur. Victims in these cases, for a variety of reasons, may ultimately decline to cooperate with authorities once the trauma initially surrounding these events subsides. Consequently, it is difficult to deal with evidentiary issues that arise during litigation, unless such cases are carefully investigated and charged from the beginning.

The Director of Counseling Services for the District Attorney's Victim-Witness Assistance Program works closely with the unit to coordinate services to victims who may otherwise be without shelter, clothing, medical care and mental health services. The unit educates victims about the manner in which the criminal justice system operates and advocates on their behalf throughout the process.

Also, in a further effort to more aggressively pursue allegations as well as confirmed cases of child abuse and criminal neglect, close cooperation with the Department of Family & Children Services (DFACS) has been established. A full-time DFACS staff member is officially assigned as a liaison to this Office and works within the unit in order to insure that abuse/neglect referrals are not overlooked and that cases are prosecuted as effectively as possible in the best interest of the child involved.

In 1998, the unit began to focus on the disturbing trend in metro-Atlanta of pimps preying upon girls as young as 11-years-old, trapping them in the city's underground sex industry. The Office worked closely with State legislators to pass a new law making the pimping of minors a felony in Georgia and has secured the convictions of a number of these dangerous sexual predators.

Hate Crimes Unit
Crimes motivated by religious, ethnic, racial, gender, or sexual orientation-based bias or prejudice are especially egregious because of their clear intent to threaten entire groups of people far beyond the actual victim of the initial incident. These acts of “domestic terrorism” must not be tolerated in Fulton County, and the District Attorney’s Office intends to do everything it can to see that they are not.

To that end, in 1999, in anticipation of the passage of the State’s Hate Crimes legislation, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office formed a specialized Hate Crimes Task Force made up of two senior assistant district attorneys, two investigators, victim-witness advocates, and administrative staff. The first task of this unit was to assist State Senator Vincent Fort with the crafting and ultimate passage of the legislation. The law went into effect in 2000, and, fortunately, for nearly two years, this Office had no such offenses reported that required the work of the task force. An April 2002 attack on two young African-American men in Atlanta’s Little Five Points neighborhood became the first case to put this unit (and, indeed, the State law) to the test and, at this time, has yet to be disposed.

Some facts bear out the need for such a Task Force. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports for 2000, four of Georgia’s 80 reporting agencies submitted hate crime incident reports, and the total number of incidents reported was 35. Of those 35, Atlanta accounted for 21 (11 of which were motivated by racial bias, eight by sexual orientation bias, and two by ethnicity bias). Most of the offenses reported in Georgia were for destruction of property/vandalism, while others were for assault and intimidation. Nationally, over half (53.8%) of reported incidents were motivated by racial bias, and over 64% of known offenders in these cases were white.

Juvenile Court Division
The Juvenile Court Division represents the state in Juvenile Court. The role of prosecutors in this forum is to advocate for the rights of victims while also insuring that the interest of the youthful offender are served. Juvenile Court has jurisdiction over children until their 17th birthday. However, Superior Court has jurisdiction over all persons between the ages of 13 and 16 who are charged with murder, voluntary manslaughter, rape, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sexual battery and armed robbery with the use of a firearm.

Major Drugs Unit
According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, in 2000, there were 1,579,566 state and local arrests for drug abuse violations in the United States and drug abuse violations account for the single largest category of arrest offenses. So, as is the case in nearly every urban jurisdiction in the nation, illegal drugs are a major problem in Fulton County. The illegal drug market is also a proven catalyst for other crimes, with drug-users accounting for many property crimes such as burglary and theft. Drug-sellers, in turn, are involved in a variety of violent crimes such as homicide and aggravated assault. Conservative estimates suggest that 60% of the murder cases being prosecuted by this Office are in some way drug-related.

Further demonstrating the pervasive connection between illegal drugs and crime in our community, statistics from the National Institute of Justice show that, in every major category of criminal offenses, anywhere from nearly 60% to over 90% of arrestees tested positive for illegal drugs at the time they were detained.

In response to the enormity of this drug problem, many police departments-including Fulton County and City of Atlanta-have established specialized units to aid in the detection and arrest of traffickers and users. Historically, however, there has been an unfortunate disconnect between the priorities of the police departments and those of the District Attorney's Office. For assistant district attorneys, enormous caseloads (leading to limited case preparation time and the need to dispose of cases quickly) often made the prosecution of drug cases a low priority. In 1996 alone, of 3,868 drug cases disposed, 559 were dead docketed while another 1,977 were allowed to plead guilty to lesser offenses with the majority of these placed on probation. For many drug-users and sellers in Fulton County, this approach amounted to a de facto legalization of their behaviors.

Recognizing this, District Attorney Paul Howard created a Major Drugs Unit in 1998 in order to make the prosecution of drug offenses a priority. Working closely with law enforcement throughout the County, this specialized unit focuses upon the immediate investigation, charging, preparation, and trial of major drug trafficking and possession cases. The Unit also works with Fulton County's Drug Court and is responsible for forfeitures/seizures of property and weapons.
Prosecutors assigned to the unit are well versed in the State's search and seizure statutes and can provide immediate guidance to police officers dealing with these crimes. By working with police from the beginning, the unit ensures that cases are well prepared to withstand inevitable-and often deadly-motions to suppress. (In the majority of drug cases, once lab results have confirmed that the substance in question is an illegal one, the question for prosecutors is whether or not proper search and seizure methods were followed by the arresting officers. Direction from and training by prosecutors insures that officers follow the proper procedures.)

This year, the unit began working closely with the Community Prosecutor on a new initiative, "Neighborhood Fresh Start." This program focuses on the closing and seizure of known crack houses or other properties where illegal drugs are sold or used. These properties, often residential, are then refurbished, provided free-of-charge to a law enforcement officer for one year, and subsequently re-sold to new owners in a focused attempt to revitalize neighborhoods blighted by illegal drugs.

Major Felonies Unit
By their very nature, homicides and other major felonies present a prosecutor with a multitude of highly complex issues. These crimes extract a cost to the community greater than that of any other criminal activity: loss of human life. Further, the successful prosecution of these crimes results in the harshest punishments issued by the courts - up to and including the loss of life by the defendant. Major felony cases, therefore, necessitate considerably more investigation and preparation for prosecution than any other crime prosecuted by the District Attorney. Also, trials in these cases are lengthier and the results more closely scrutinized by the appellate courts of this state and of the United States.

The Major Felony Unit continues to provide24-hour assistance to law enforcement agencies upon request. A Senior Assistant District Attorney is available on a rotating basis each day of the year to provide legal help to law enforcement agencies investigating homicides or other complex cases. The Senior Assistant District Attorney on duty reports to homicide scenes upon notification and assists with legal issues that arise during the investigation. Such activities include preparing arrest and search warrants, providing direction in the gathering of evidence, and answering legal questions in regards to search and seizure. Senior Assistant District Attorneys also provide legal advice regarding suspect and witness interviews, admissibility of evidence, and probable cause to arrest.

White Collar Crime Unit
In 1997 alone, due to a lack of resources and the specific expertise required, this Office was unable to adequately respond to requests for assistance in so-called "white collar crime" cases from not only the United States Secret Service, but also the City of Atlanta Fraud Unit, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, and the Department of Agriculture-not to mention the citizens of Fulton County. Without a staff trained and given the resources to do so, the District Attorney's Office was unable to aggressively pursue complex financial crimes or, in some cases, even to assist the efforts of other agencies. Opportunities were also being missed for revenue generation through asset forfeiture, recouping of funds from welfare fraud, and victim restitution.

Recognizing this as a serious and unacceptable disability, District Attorney Paul Howard created a White Collar Crime Unit in early 1998. The unit is responsible for the prosecution of financial crimes such as embezzlement and fraud, computer and internet-related crimes, and other crimes of special sensitivity such as identity theft. The Unit is staffed by a Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney, one senior assistant district attorney, and two experienced white-collar crime investigators.

Within a few weeks of its founding, the White Collar Crime Unit had a full caseload. While many of these cases involve embezzlement, the Unit has also undertaken several internal investigations at the request of various departments within Fulton County government (for example, the high-profile investigation of the Tax Assessor's Office). In addition, the White Collar Crime Unit has prosecuted a former Georgia Power employee for the theft of over $500,000; an Alpharetta movie theatre manager for stealing $75,000 in proceeds from the opening of "Spider Man"; several fraudulent securities brokers who together bilked nearly $6 million from their victims; a local attorney accused of stealing money from his clients; and a "Casanova Con Man" who defrauded numerous female victims with whom he had romantic relationships.