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

O.C.G.A. § 17-10-16.1 (2019)

Seeking death penalty not prerequisite to life without parole sentence

✓ 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.
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A person may be sentenced to life without parole without the prosecutor seeking the death penalty under the laws of this state.

History

Code 1981, § 17-10-16.1, enacted by Ga. L. 2011, p. 752, § 17/HB 142.

Annotations

Editor’s notes. - This Code section is reflective of uncodified provisions from Ga. L. 2009, p. 223, § 10.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS State was permitted to seek a sentence of life without parole since the murder occurred one year after the law

was changed to permit such a sentence. Heywood v. State, 292 Ga. 771, 743 S.E.2d 12 (2013).

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 6 cases, 2013–2017 · leading case: Heywood v. State, 743 S.E.2d 12 (Ga. 2013).
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Heywood v. State, 743 S.E.2d 12 (Ga. 2013). · cites it 4× “Appellant correctly notes that in 2011, the year after he killed the victim, the General Assembly expressly required the codification of § 10 of the 2009 Act in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated as OCGA § 17-10-16.1. See Ga.L. 2011, p.752, § 17 (3) (effective May 13, 2011)…”
Foster v. State, 754 S.E.2d 33 (Ga. 2014). · cites it 4× “After the murder, the Legislature passed OCGA § 17-10-16.1, which provides that “[a] person may be sentenced to life without parole without the prosecutor seeking the death penalty under the laws of this state.”
Kimbrough v. State, 796 S.E.2d 694 (Ga. 2017). · cites it 2× “” In 2011, the General Assembly expressly required the codification of § 10 of the 2009Act in the Official Code of GeorgiaAnnotated as OCGA § 17-10-16.1. See Ga.L.2011, p. 752, § 17 (3).”
Mathis v. State, 743 S.E.2d 393 (Ga. 2013). · cites it 2× “) Although Mathis notes that it was not until 2011, after his trial, that the General Assembly expressly required the codification of the statement in the 2009 enactment that a sentence of life without the possibility of parole may be imposed when the State does not seek the…”
Anthony Leon Estes v. State, No. A18A0493 (Ga. Ct. App. Nov. 14, 2017). · cites it 2× “In 2007, Estes filed a motion to correct a void sentence, arguing that he never received a presentence hearing and that the state failed to file a notice of its intent to seek the death penalty, as required under OCGA § 17-10-16.1 The trial court denied the motion, and Estes…”
Kimbrough v. State, No. S16A1610 (Ga. Feb. 6, 2017). · cites it 2× “” In 2011, the General Assembly expressly required the codification of § 10 of the 2009 Act in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated as OCGA § 17-10-16.1. See Ga. L. 2011, p. 752, § 17 (3).”
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.