Jury Impeachment Rules in Georgia
Once a jury returns a verdict in a Georgia criminal case, the law places strict limits on what jurors may later say about how they reached that decision.…
A lexicon of Georgia criminal statutes
Georgia Criminal Law
The lexicon
150 entriesJ
Jury Instructions and Allen Charge in Georgia
Jury instructions shape how a jury understands the law it must apply, and Georgia has built specific procedural rules around how those instructions are requested, delivered, and reviewed…
Juvenile Detention in Georgia
Detention of a juvenile before any delinquency adjudication is not a default consequence of arrest in Georgia. It is a separate, tightly time-limited legal stage governed by its…
Juvenile Diversion Programs in Georgia
Georgia juvenile courts have a mechanism for resolving certain delinquency allegations without a formal adjudication. Known as informal adjustment, this process lets an intake officer counsel and advise…
Juvenile Procedural Rights in Georgia
Georgia's juvenile courts were built on a rehabilitative model, one that treated delinquency proceedings as something closer to a welfare hearing than a criminal trial. For most of…
Juvenile Records and Expungement in Georgia
Georgia law does not use the term "expungement" for juvenile records. Instead, O.C.G.A. §§ 15-11-700 through 15-11-710 establish a process for sealing juvenile court files and records, and…
Juvenile Transfer Hearing in Georgia
When a Georgia juvenile court considers transferring a case to superior court so that a child can be tried as an adult, the law requires more than an…
Juvenile Transfer to Adult Court in Georgia
Georgia operates two distinct legal pathways by which a juvenile can end up facing prosecution in adult superior court rather than juvenile court. One pathway is automatic, triggered…
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Kidnapping and False Imprisonment in Georgia
Kidnapping and false imprisonment sit next to each other in Georgia's criminal code, and they share a basic concept, depriving another person of their liberty against their will.…
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Machine Guns and NFA Weapons in Georgia
Georgia law prohibits possession of an entire category of weapons, including machine guns, certain shortened firearms, and silencers, but that prohibition is not absolute. A specific statutory exemption…
Merger Doctrine and Double Jeopardy in Georgia
When a single act or transaction gives rise to multiple criminal charges, Georgia law does not automatically allow punishment for every charge a jury convicts on. The merger…
Mid-Trial Self-Representation in Georgia
A request to proceed without a lawyer made after a trial has already begun is treated differently than the same request made before trial starts. Courts confronting a…
Miranda Rights and Custodial Interrogation in Georgia
Miranda warnings are one of the most widely recognized features of American criminal procedure, yet the rule about when they are actually required is narrower than common understanding…
Motion for New Trial in Georgia
After a Georgia jury returns a guilty verdict, the case does not automatically proceed to appeal. State law gives the trial court itself a chance to revisit the…
Motion to Suppress Evidence in Georgia
When a defendant in a Georgia criminal case believes evidence was obtained through an unlawful search or seizure, the mechanism for challenging that evidence is a motion to…
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Necessity Defense in Georgia Criminal Cases
Georgia law does not contain a standalone statute labeled "necessity defense." Instead, the concept that most people mean when they use that phrase, conduct that would otherwise be…
Negligence Per Se in Georgia Criminal Cases
Negligence per se is a civil tort doctrine codified at O.C.G.A. § 51-1-6, and despite its frequent association with conduct that also happens to violate a criminal statute,…
Nolle prosequi (the prosecutor’s decision to drop charges) and Dual Sovereignty in Georgia
When a Georgia prosecutor decides not to pursue a pending criminal charge, the formal mechanism for doing so is a nolle prosequi, often shortened to "nolle pros." This…
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Opening and Closing Arguments in Georgia
Georgia law sets out a detailed set of rules governing how attorneys argue a criminal case to the jury, covering everything from how many lawyers may speak to…
Ordinary vs. Gross Negligence: Georgia Criminal Defense
Georgia law recognizes three distinct levels of negligence, and conflating them is a common source of confusion for anyone trying to understand when careless conduct can lead to…
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Parole Eligibility and Decisions in Georgia
Parole in Georgia is governed by a constitutional body with exclusive authority over the decision, and eligibility rules that vary sharply depending on the offense involved. Understanding who…
Parole Revocation Procedure in Georgia
When the State seeks to revoke a person's parole in Georgia, the process is governed by constitutional due-process requirements established by the United States Supreme Court, implemented in…
Peremptory Strikes in Georgia Criminal Trials
Georgia law sets a specific number of peremptory strikes available to each side in a criminal trial, with the exact number depending on the type of case being…
Plain View Doctrine in Georgia Criminal Cases
The Fourth Amendment generally requires police to obtain a warrant before searching for or seizing evidence. The plain view doctrine is one of the established exceptions to that…
Plea Negotiation Protections in Georgia
Open and candid negotiation between a defendant and a prosecutor is difficult to achieve if anything said in the course of that negotiation can later resurface as evidence…