A Georgia district attorney will not pursue charges against a state legislator arrested for knocking on the governor’s door during a signing ceremony for a controversial voting bill.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis considers the matter of Rep. Park Cannon’s March 25 arrest closed after conducting multiple interviews with people involved in the incident.
“After reviewing all of the evidence, I have decided to close this matter. It will not be presented to a grand jury for consideration of indictment, and it is now closed,” she said on Wednesday. “While some of Representative 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.”
After repeatedly not following officers’ orders to stop knocking on the door to the governor’s office inside the state Capitol last month, Cannon was arrested and taken away in handcuffs. She was charged with obstruction of law enforcement and preventing or disrupting the General Assembly and was later released on a $6,000 signature bond.
“Facts and evidence show that Park Cannon committed no crime and should never have been arrested. We are weighing our next legal options,” Gerald Griggs, Cannon’s attorney, said on social media following Willis’s announcement.
At the time of the arrest, Mark Riley, Georgia Department of Public Safety information director, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that Cannon “was instructed that no one was in the front office and to stop beating on the door.”
“Rep. Cannon moved and went to the Governor’s Ceremonial Office door. This door is marked off with stanchions and a ‘Governor’s Staff Only’ sign. Rep. Cannon went inside the stanchions and began knocking on the door. Rep. Cannon was instructed to stop knocking on the door and that Governor Kemp was having a press conference inside,” Riley said.
“Rep. Cannon continued to knock on the door and was instructed again to stop knocking on the door,” he added. “She was advised that she was disturbing what was going on inside and if she did not stop, she would be placed under arrest. Rep. Cannon stepped back for a moment and then stepped back up to the door and started knocking on the door again. She was again advised if she did not stop, she would be arrested for obstruction and disturbing the press conference. Rep. Cannon refused to stop knocking on the door.”
The news of Cannon’s arrest spread quickly, and the White House said it was “deeply concerned.”
Cannon attempted to interrupt the signing of an election-reform bill that has become one of the premier national headlines in the ensuing weeks. The bill has been heralded by Republicans, who supported the legislation, as a way to ensure voter integrity, while Democrats claim the bill is meant to disenfranchise minority voters.
The bill makes it mandatory for voters seeking an absentee ballot to provide a form of photo identification, whereas previously, election officials would verify electors through signature verification. It will also shorten the time between general elections and runoff elections and provides state officials with the authority to take over local election boards in certain circumstances. The bill will also make it a crime for anyone other than election workers to approach voters in line to give them anything.
The law also codified the use of drop boxes, which were used in 2020 under the guise of coronavirus prevention, but they will be placed in early-voting locations and can only be accessed during the business hours of the voting precinct.
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Nationwide, Republicans are looking to implement changes similar to what was passed in Georgia. Republican legislatures have commonly backed bills that strengthen voter ID laws and limit voting by mail, while Democrats often call for automatic voter registration and extended early voting and absentee voting.
