---
title: O.C.G.A. § 16-3-26. Coercion.
collection: code
id: 16-3-26
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 16-3-26 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-3-26
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-3-26.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-3-26/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t16-ch1-6-(v14)-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=e7841a34_0#page=50
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/16-3.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-3-25.md
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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 / DEFENSES TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS / JUSTIFICATION AND EXCUSE
---

# O.C.G.A. § 16-3-26. Coercion.

A person is not guilty of a crime, except for the offense of murder provided for in subsection (a) of Code Section 16-5-1, if the act upon which the supposed criminal liability is based is performed under such coercion that he or she reasonably believes that performing the act is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily injury to himself or herself or a third person.

## History

Laws 1833, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 780.; Code 1863, § 4202; Code 1868, § 4238; Code 1873, § 4303; Code 1882, § 4303; Penal Code 1895, § 41; Penal Code 1910, § 41; Code 1933, § 26-402; Code 1933, § 26-906, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1; Ga. L. 2025, p. 497, § 3/HB 582, effective July 1, 2025.

## Editor's Notes

Ga. L. 2025, p. 497, § 1/HB 582, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Georgia Survivor Justice Act.’”

## Amendments

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, rewrote this Code section.