Georgia lawmaker arrested while governor signed election bill won’t be prosecuted

Georgia state Rep. Park Cannon (D) will not be prosecuted following her arrest in late March during Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) closed-door bill signing. 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Wednesday that she would not proceed with two felony charges against Cannon who was arrested after loudly knocking on the door of Kemp’s state office while he signed a sweeping piece of voting legislation, S.B. 202, into law on March 25, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

The newspaper further reported that Willis said the case surrounding Cannon’s arrest was closed, and would not be presented to a grand jury.

“While some of Rep. Cannon’s colleagues and the police officers involved may have found her behavior annoying, such sentiment does not justify a presentment to a grand jury of the allegations in the arrest warrants or any other felony charges,” Willis said, according to the newspaper.

Cannon faced charges of obstruction of law enforcement and disrupting the General Assembly for her actions, and in arrest reports one officer claimed that he believed activists with Cannon at the time would attempt to breach the door of Kemp’s office if she did not stop.

The activists have denied this claim, stating that none of them touched the door of the governor’s office.

“The events of January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol were in the back of my mind,” read an arresting officer’s report obtained by the Journal-Constitution.

Her arrest drew widespread attention and backlash on social media at the time and she was visited following her arrest by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.). 

The bill signed into law by Kemp makes it a crime to offer food or drink to any person waiting in line to vote, and cuts down the number of mail-in ballot drop boxes in the state, among other tightened restrictions.

Democrats and voting rights activists have panned the new law as a means of voter suppression.