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

O.C.G.A. § 45-16-39 (2019)

Oath for foreperson and jury of inquest

✓ 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) The following oath shall be administered to the foreman of the jury by the coroner: "You, as foreman of the inquest, shall diligently inquire and true presentment make, on behalf of the State of Georgia, how and in what manner __________ (or a person deceased, unknown, as the case may be) came to his death and of such other matters relating to the same as shall be lawfully required of you, according to evidence, so help you God."

(b) The remainder of the jury shall be sworn by the coroner as follows: "The same oath which the foreman of this inquest has taken on his part each of you shall observe and keep upon your part, so help you God."

History

(Laws 1823, Cobb's 1851 Digest, p. 538; Code 1863, § 4005; Code 1868, § 4033; Code 1873, § 4104; Code 1882, § 4104; Penal Code 1895, § 1261; Penal Code 1910, § 1343; Code 1933, § 21-212; Ga. L. 1953, Jan.-Feb. Sess., p. 602, § 16; Ga. L. 1990, p. 1735, § 3.)

Annotations

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d. - 18 Am. Jur. 2d, Coroners or Medical Examiners, § 13.

C.J.S. - 18 C.J.S., Coroners, § 14 et seq.