The Coleman-Baker Act, which will bring new attention to unsolved homicide cases, passed unanimously in both chambers of the Georgia legislature on March 29.
The bill, also known as HB 88, will direct additional resources toward solving unsolved homicide cases in the state. It is named for Rhonda Sue Coleman, murdered in 1990 in Hazlehurst, Georgia, and Tara Louise Baker, a University of Georgia law student murdered in her apartment in Athens in 2001.
“Knowing what this means for the Baker family along with the Coleman’s brings me to tears,” Cameron Jay, host of Classic City Crime podcast, which covered Baker’s case, said in a Tweet.
The Coleman-Baker Act, which will address cold cases and provide for new reviews of unsolved cases unanimously passed both chambers in the Georgia Legislature tonight. Knowing what this means for the Baker family along with the Coleman’s brings me to tears. #gapol pic.twitter.com/B40w9OD8MK
— Cameron Jay (@CameronJayAth) March 30, 2023
The bill was based on a similar act— The Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights Act of 2021 — that passed into federal law in 2022. If the bill is passed into law, Georgia will become the first state to implement such legislation, according to an email from Jay.
The bill will establish a cold case unit at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to review cases at the request of victims’ families or local law enforcement after three years, according to Jay. It will also create a reporting requirement for jurisdictions across the state to provide acount of the number of cold cases.
The bill will also give coroners and medical examiners the ability to list a generic cause of death on a death certificate, a document that can be legally vital for victims’ families. The Baker family was denied Tara’s death certificate for a decade because law enforcement claimed “a cause of death listed would hinder their investigation and identification of a perpetrator,” Jay said in an email.
The Coleman-Baker Act had seven sponsors in the house: Rep. Houston Gaines (R), Rep. William Werkheiser (R), Rep. Alan Powell (R), Rep. Clint Crowe (R), Rep. Stacey Evans (D), Rep. Marcus Wiedower (R) and Rep. Randy Robertson (R). Gaines is an Athens representative.
The bill will now go to Gov. Brian Kemp to be signed into law.
