Syfert Injury Law Firm

Your Trusted Partner in Personal Injury & Workers' Compensation

Call Now: 904-383-7448
O.C.G.A. § 15-12-1 — Definitions | Georgia Code
O.C.G.A. § 15-12-1 (2018) Copy Cite Official Site Syfertize CourtListener Scholar Amendments

TITLE 15 COURTS

Section 12. Juries, 15-12-1 through 15-12-172.

ARTICLE 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS

15-12-1. Definitions.

As used in this chapter, the term:

  1. "Array" means the body of persons subject to voir dire from which the final jury and alternate jurors are selected.
  2. "Choose" or "chosen" means the act of randomly selecting potential jurors from the county master jury list in a manner that does not deliberately or systematically exclude identifiable and distinct groups from the venire.
  3. "Clerk" means the clerk of the superior court or a jury clerk if one is appointed pursuant to subsection (a) of Code Section 15-12-11 or Code Section 15-12-12.
  4. "Council" means The Council of Superior Court Clerks of Georgia.
  5. "County master jury list" means a list compiled by the council of names of persons, including their addresses, city of residence, dates of birth, and gender, eligible for trial or grand jury service.
  6. "Defer" means a postponement of a person's jury service until a later date.
  7. "Excuse" means the grant of a person's request for temporary exemption from jury service.
  8. "Inactivate" means removing a person's name and identifying information who has been identified on the county master jury list as a person who is permanently prevented from being chosen as a trial or grand juror because such person is statutorily ineligible or incompetent to serve as a juror.
  9. "State-wide master jury list" means a comprehensive master list that identifies every person of this state who can be determined to be prima facie qualified to serve as a trial or grand juror.
  10. "Venire" means the list of persons summoned to serve as trial or grand jurors for a particular term of court.

(Code 1981, §15-12-1, enacted by Ga. L. 2011, p. 59, § 1-5/HB 415; Ga. L. 2014, p. 451, § 3/HB 776; Ga. L. 2014, p. 862, § 1/HB 1078.)

The 2014 amendments. The first 2014 amendment, effective July 1, 2014, substituted "Code Section 15-12-12" for "subsection (b) of Code Section 15-12-23" in paragraph (3); substituted "The Council" for "the Council" in paragraph (4); deleted former paragraph (9), which read: " 'Jury commissioner' means a member of a county board of jury commissioners."; and redesignated former paragraphs (10) and (11) as present paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively. The second 2014 amendment, effective April 29, 2014, inserted "trial or grand" near the end of paragraphs (5), (10) (now paragraph (9)) and (11) (now paragraph (10)).

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 2011, p. 59, § 1-1/HB 415, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: "This Act shall be known and may be cited as the 'Jury Composition Reform Act of 2011.'"

Ga. L. 2011, p. 59, § 1-5/HB 415, effective July 1, 2011, redesignated former Code Section 15-12-1 as present Code Section 15-12-1.1.

Database error: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 8 attempt to write a readonly database

This Georgia Code resource is curated by the attorney maintaining this site, a personal injury and workers' compensation attorney admitted in Georgia (State Bar of Georgia No. 881027, since 2006) and Florida. For legal consultation, call 904-383-7448.