O.C.G.A. § 15-12-69 (2019)

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). 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).