---
title: O.C.G.A. § 16-10-70. Perjury.
collection: code
id: 16-10-70
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 16-10-70 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-10-70
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-10-70.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-10-70/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t16-ch7-11-(v14a)-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=f5e4f5fa_0#page=80
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-10.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-10-56.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-10-71.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CRIMES AND OFFENSES / OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION / PERJURY AND RELATED OFFENSES
extraction_warnings:
  - dehyphenation_unverified:admin-istered
---

# O.C.G.A. § 16-10-70. Perjury.

(a) A person to whom a lawful oath or affirmation has been administered or a person who executes an unsworn declaration as defined in Code Section 9-1-1 commits the offense of perjury when, in a judicial proceeding, he or she knowingly and willfully makes a false statement material to the issue or point in question.

(b) A person convicted of the offense of perjury shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.00 or by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years, or both. A person convicted of the offense of perjury that was a cause of another’s being imprisoned shall be sentenced to a term not to exceed the sentence provided for the crime for which the other person was convicted. A person convicted of the offense of perjury that was a cause of another’s being punished by death shall be punished by life imprisonment.

## History

Laws 1833, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, pp. 804, 805.; Code 1863, §§ 4355, 4356, 4363; Code 1868, §§ 4393, 4394, 4401; Code 1873, §§ 4460, 4461, 4468; Code 1882, §§ 4460, 4461, 4468; Penal Code 1895, §§ 256, 257, 262; Penal Code 1910, §§ 259, 260, 265; Ga. L. 1933, p. 40, § 1; Code 1933, §§ 26-4001, 26-4002, 26-4007; Code 1933, § 26-2401, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1; Ga. L. 1973, p. 159, § 2; Ga. L. 2023, p. 120, § 2/HB 80, effective July 1, 2023.

## Amendments

The 2023 amendment, effective July 1, 2023, in subsection (a), inserted “or a person who executes an unsworn declaration as defined in Code Section 9-1-1” and inserted “or she”.