---
title: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-33. Unlawful assembly.
collection: code
id: 16-11-33
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-33 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-11-33
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-11-33.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-11-33/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t16-ch7-11-(v14a)-2018-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=aecbfe9c_0#page=754
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.
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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 ORDER AND SAFETY / OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC ORDER
---

# O.C.G.A. § 16-11-33. Unlawful assembly.

A person who knowingly participates in either of the following acts or occurrences is guilty of a misdemeanor:

(1) The assembly of two or more persons for the purpose of committing an unlawful act and the failure to withdraw from the assembly on being lawfully commanded to do so by a peace officer and before any member of the assembly has inflicted injury to the person or property of another; or

(2) The assembly of two or more persons, without authority of law, for the purpose of doing violence to the person or property of one supposed by the accused to have been guilty of a violation of the law, or for the purpose of exercising correctional or regulative powers over any person by violence; provided, however, that it shall be an affirmative defense to a prosecution under this paragraph that the accused withdrew from the assembly on being lawfully commanded to do so by a peace officer or before any member of the assembly had inflicted injury to the person or property of another.

## History

Laws 1833, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 810; Code 1863, § 4399; Code 1868, § 4440; Code 1873, § 4513; Code 1882, § 4513; Penal Code 1895, § 353; Penal Code 1910, § 359; Code 1933, § 26-5301; Code 1933, § 26-2604, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1; Ga. L. 1989, p. 14, § 16.

## Cross References

Freedom of assembly, Ga. Const. 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Para. IX.

## Law Reviews

For comment on Wright v. State, 217 Ga. 453, 122 S.E.2d 737 (1961), see 25 Ga. B.J. 99 (1962). For comment on Wright v. Georgia, 373 U.S. 284, 83 S. Ct. 1240, 10 L. Ed. 2d 349 (1963), see 26 Ga. B.J. 99 (1963).