Legal experts tonight. Were discussing rico is a powerful charge because it is so broad. It is one of the broadest laws in the nation, the way georgia uses it, as the Washington Post explains, because prosecutors can weave together alleged crimes, violations of state and federal laws, activities in other states, the law as this d. A. Knows well, does not require a defendant to set foot in georgia to be charged. Why . Because rico is that broad, you do need, of course, something to happen in the state, in georgia, but you could be a person who stayed out of state. Maybe youre a busy coconspirator. Maybe youre a coward and send other people to do things for you. Under the Georgia State rico statute, a long as some people have committed these crimes of some kind inside the state, other people can be looped in. Thats one of the ways d. A. Willis came out with this strong, broad set of charges last night rounding up these 19 defendants. Theyre not all Household Names. I want to show you def
statutes and more expansive than the federal statute. it doesn t cohere to the same tear tortality constraints that other criminal laws do. you could actually charge someone based on conduct that occurred in another jurisdiction, so long as there s a nexus between that conduct and the crime that is in furtherance in the state of georgia. so that s why we have some of these defendants who have not ever stepped foot in georgia, and that will certainly be part of their defense, but it s not likely to be completely availing because that s exactly what this statute contemplates, the prospect of a broad criminal syndicate that may have tentacles that go beyond the locus of the major conspiracy itself. yeah, we re looking on the screen, this number of faces. according to the d.a., professor, this is the racketeering organization. this is the gang. this is the illegal group. we could come up with english words or legal words, but it s