O.C.G.A.
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.
(a) A parent, guardian, or other person supervising the welfare of or having immediate charge or custody of a child under the age of one year commits the offense of reckless abandonment of a child when the person willfully and voluntarily physically abandons such child with the intention of severing all parental or custodial duties and responsibilities to such child and leaving such child in a condition which results in the death of said child. (b) Any person who violates subsection (a) of this Code section shall be guilty of a felony and shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by imprisonment for not less than ten nor more than 25 years.
History
Code 1981, § 16-5-72, enacted by Ga. L. 1989, p. 1605, § 1.
Annotations
Law reviews. - For note on 1989
enactment of this Code section, see 6 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 209 (1989).
JUDICIAL DECISIONS Evidence sufficient to sustain conviction. - Evidence that the death of a child occurred following the mother’s placing the child in a trash bag after giving birth and then putting the bag on the
front porch was sufficient to support the finding of a violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-5-72. In re B.L.M., 228 Ga. App. 664, 492 S.E.2d 700 (1997).
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
3
cases (
2 in the last 5 years), 1997–2023 · leading case:
Bell v. State, 317 Ga. 519 (Ga. 2023).
Bell v. State, 317 Ga. 519 (Ga. 2023).
· cites it 4× “664, 664-665 (1) (492 SE2d 700) (1997) (applying proximate cause analysis to charge of reckless abandonment under OCGA § 16-5-72, a statute prohibiting the abandonment of a child that results in death).”
In the Interest of B. L. M., 492 S.E.2d 700 (Ga. Ct. App. 1997).
· cites it 6× “Under OCGA § 16-5-72 (a), a parent commits the offense of reckless abandonment of a child under the age of one year when the parent “willfully and voluntarily physically abandons such child with the intention of severing all parental or custodial duties and responsibilities to…”
Cortney Bell v. State (Ga. Ct. App. 2022).
“664, 664-665 (1) ( 492 SE2d 700 ) (1997) (applying proximate cause analysis to charge of reckless abandonment under OCGA § 16-5-72 (abandonment of child that results in death)).”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.