O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 15-12-3 (2019)

Term of service on jury

✓ O.C.G.A. (archive.org 2024 item): print volumes of 2004-2024, per-volume vintage; older volumes partly replaced by 2019 Release 73 text; no 2025 or 2026 Acts
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section GA-LEGlegis.ga.gov (official) JustiaJustia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

No person shall be allowed to serve on the trial jury of the superior court or on any trial jury in other courts for more than four weeks in any one year unless he or she is actually engaged in the trial of a case when the four weeks expire, in which case he or she shall be discharged as soon as the case is decided.

History

(Ga. L. 1872, p. 15, § 1; Code 1873, § 3938; Code 1882, § 3938; Penal Code 1895, § 865; Penal Code 1910, § 869; Code 1933, § 59-118; Ga. L. 2011, p. 59, § 1-6/HB 415; Ga. L. 2014, p. 862, § 3/HB 1078.)

Annotations

The 2014 amendment, effective April 29, 2014, deleted the former first sentence, which read: "No person shall be compellable to serve on the grand or trial jury of the superior court or on any jury in other courts for more than four weeks in any year.", and inserted "trial" near the middle of this Code section.

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.'"

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Word "year" refers to calendar year. Atlanta & C. Air-Line R.R. v. Ray, 70 Ga. 674 (1883).

Grand juror is not prevented from acting as talesman. Loeb v. State, 75 Ga. 258 (1885).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d. - 47 Am. Jur. 2d, Jury, §§ 161, 163.

C.J.S. - 50A C.J.S., Juries, § 350.

ALR. - Time jury may or must be kept together upon disagreement in civil case, 164 A.L.R. 1265.