O.C.G.A. § 15-12-69 (2019)
Oath of bailiff attending grand jury
The following oath shall be administered to all bailiffs attending grand juries: "You do solemnly swear that you will diligently attend the grand jury during the present term and carefully deliver to that body all such bills of indictment or other things as shall be sent to them by the court without alteration, and as carefully return all such as shall be sent by that body to the court. So help you God."
History
(Laws 1831, Cobb's 1851 Digest, pp. 553-554; Code 1863, § 5105; Code 1868, § 3848; Code 1873, § 3916; Code 1882, § 3916; Penal Code 1895, § 828; Penal Code 1910, § 832; Code 1933, § 59-209.)
Annotations
Cross references. - Selection of bailiffs by sheriff, § 15-6-35.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Bailiff may be sworn in open court or before grand jury and there is no duty to enter the fact on the minutes of the court. If there is such an entry, a presumption arises that the person named was qualified to act. Zeigler v. State, 2 Ga. App. 632, 58 S.E. 1066 (1907).
Bailiffs did not have to be resworn in same term. - Trial court did not err by denying the defendant's second plea in abatement and request to quash the second indictment based on a failure to re-swear the bailiffs because although the same bailiffs were sworn with the July-term grand jury, the plain language of O.C.G.A. § 15-12-69 indicates that the bailiffs were not divested of the bailiffs' authority to tend to the January-term grand jury as the bailiffs were still acting within the same term. Durden v. State, 299 Ga. 273, 787 S.E.2d 697 (2016).
Return of indictment to court by bailiff valid. - Danforth v. State, 75 Ga. 614, 58 Am. R. 480 (1885); Sampson v. State, 124 Ga. 776, 53 S.E. 332, 4 Ann. Cas. 525 (1906).
Substitution of bailiff for grand jury members authorized. - Bailiff is sworn to diligently attend the grand jury, and carefully deliver to the grand jury all bills of indictment or other things sent to them by the court, without alteration, and "as carefully return all such as shall be sent by that body to the court." The quoted portion of the bailiff's oath authorized a substitution of the bailiff for the members of the grand jury in the performance of the act of returning into court an indictment which has been duly found by the grand jury. Zugar v. State, 194 Ga. 285, 21 S.E.2d 647 (1942).
Return of grand jury indictment charging murder. - If a plea in abatement alleges that the indictment was not so returned, that the grand jury bailiff to whom such indictment was delivered by the jury found the judge of the court in the corridor or hallway of the courthouse on the floor below the courtroom, and at the direction of the judge delivered the indictment to the clerk in the clerk's office, this shows that the indictment was not returned in open court as required by law. Zugar v. State, 194 Ga. 285, 21 S.E.2d 647 (1942).
Cited in Taylor v. State, 44 Ga. App. 64, 160 S.E. 667 (1931); Cadle v. State, 101 Ga. App. 175, 113 S.E.2d 180 (1960); Henderson v. State, 182 Ga. App. 513, 356 S.E.2d 241 (1987).