Cobb County Superior Court distributed a public information release announcing that Judge Ann B. Harris has been elected to the executive committee of Georgia’s Council of Superior Court Judges.

“It is an honor to be selected,” said Judge Harris. “I am privileged to work on issues that affect all Superior Court judges across the state.”

According to the public information release:

The Council, also known as CSCJ, comprises all Superior Court Judges, both active and senior, which number several hundred. It exists to continually improve the administration of justice, and it provides assistance with research, administration and communications to the state’s 159 Superior Courts.

On Thursday, Judge Harris was elected by her peers to serve as secretary/treasurer of the Council. Her one-year term begins May 1. The secretary/treasurer typically progresses up the line of the executive committee and ultimately serves as president of the council.

Judge Harris is one of 11 Superior Court judges in the Cobb Judicial Circuit. She also presides over two Accountability Courts in Cobb: Parental Accountability Court, which aims to help parents overcome barriers that make it difficult for them to pay child support; and Mental Health Court, which works to achieve long-term stability and reduce recidivism for individuals facing criminal charges who have a mental health diagnosis.  

About Judge Ann B. Harris

Judge Harris was first elected to the Superior Court bench in 2014, then won re-election in 2018.

The Superior Court website gives the following account of her career before she was elected:

Prior to taking the bench, Judge Harris served the people of Cobb County as an assistant district attorney for 19 years. She prosecuted all types of serious felony offenses in Superior Court, including murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and child cruelty. She helped draft the first human trafficking laws in Georgia in 2006 and sat for several years on the Regional Human Trafficking Task Force. She tried the first case of felony elder abuse in the state of Georgia as well as a double homicide that resulted in the jury’s return of a death penalty verdict. While in the District Attorney’s office, she served as an instructor for law enforcement and fellow prosecutors in principles of constitutional law and trial practice and procedure. In conjunction with federal prosecutors, she traveled to the Baltic region to introduce their prosecutors to the adversarial system of justice and effective criminal investigations and prosecutions.  Before obtaining her law degree from Vanderbilt University, she worked for several years as a consultant for an international professional services firm.  Judge Harris received her bachelor’s degree in finance from Auburn University, where she graduated with high honors in 1984.