Who takes over the DA’s office after Mark Jones’ guilty plea, and for how long?

Mark Jones will no longer serve as District Attorney for the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit as part of the plea deal he reached Monday morning to end his felony trial on misconduct charges.

The six-county district, which includes Columbus, will have a new chief prosecutor. But who will finish out Jones’ term? That power rests with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

Here’s what happens now that Jones has resigned:

What does state law say?

Under the Georgia Constitution, Kemp has the authority to appoint Jones’ replacement.

He could select a new prosecutor or stick with acting District Attorney Sheneka Jones Terry who was sworn in last month. Until Kemp makes a decision, Terry will oversee the office. It’s unclear when Kemp will name his appointee.

Officials at the Georgia Attorney General’s Office and the Georgia Secretary of State told the Ledger-Enquirer that Kemp’s appointee would serve the remainder of Jones’ term, which ends in three years, December 2024.

Walter Jones, a spokesperson for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, cited rulings from the 2020 case Kemp v. Gonzalez when explaining why Kemp’s appointee would serve the remainder of Jones’ term.

Former state Rep. Deborah Gonzalez and other voters filed a lawsuit against Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over the district attorney’s seat in the Western Judicial Circuit, which includes Clarke and Oconee counties.

In its ruling, the Georgia Supreme Court found that a state law allowing a district attorney appointed by the governor to serve longer than the remaining four-year term of the previous district attorney without an election was unconstitutional.

The court wrote that the state constitution establishes a fixed, four-year term for the office, and the office’s successor would be selected in a general election following the end of the term.

“When the governor’s appointee fills a vacancy in an office of district attorney, he or she steps only into the remainder of the unexpired fixed four-year term for the office,” a portion of the state Supreme Court’s ruling reads.

This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 5:56 PM.

Tim Chitwood

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

706-571-8508

Tim Chitwood is from Seale, Alabama, and started as a police beat reporter with the Ledger-Enquirer in 1982. He since has covered Columbus’ serial killings and other homicides, following some from the scene of the crime to trial verdicts and ensuing appeals. He also has been a Ledger-Enquirer humor columnist since 1987. He’s a graduate of Auburn University, and started out working for the weekly Phenix Citizen in Phenix City, Ala.

Nick Wooten

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Nick Wooten is the Accountability/Investigative reporter for the Ledger-Enquirer where he is responsible for covering several topics, including Georgia politics. His work may also appear in the Macon Telegraph. Nick was given the Georgia Press Association’s 2021 Emerging Journalist award for his coverage of elections, COVID-19 and Columbus’ LGBTQ+ community. Before joining McClatchy, he worked for The (Shreveport La.) Times covering city government and investigations. He is a graduate of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.