---
title: O.C.G.A. § 16-3-3. Delusional compulsion.
collection: code
id: 16-3-3
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 16-3-3 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-3-3
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-3-3.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-3-3/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t16-ch1-6-(v14)-2019-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=af47a366_0#page=245
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 / DEFENSES TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS / RESPONSIBILITY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 16-3-3. Delusional compulsion.

A person shall not be found guilty of a crime when, at the time of the act, omission, or negligence constituting the crime, the person, because of mental disease, injury, or congenital deficiency, acted as he did because of a delusional compulsion as to such act which overmastered his will to resist committing the crime.

## History

Code 1933, § 26-703, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1.

## Cross References

Mental capacity as it relates to competency to stand trial and as it relates to culpability for criminal acts, §§ 17-7-129, 17-7-130, 17-7-131.

## Law Reviews

For article discussing the theory of insanity in criminal law, see 15 Mercer L. Rev. 399 (1964). For annual survey on criminal law, see 65 Mercer L. Rev. 79 (2013). For article, ‘‘An Empirical Assessment of Georgia’s Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Standard to Determine Intellectual Disability in Capital Cases,’’ see 33 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 553 (2017).

For note comparing the M’Naghten Rule and the irresistible impulse test for legal tests of insanity, see 14 Mercer L. Rev. 418 (1963).

For comment, ‘‘Saving the Deific Decree Exception to the Insanity Defense in Illinois: How a Broad Interpretation of ‘Religious Command’ May Cure Establishment Clause Concerns,’’ see 46 J. Marshall L. Rev. 56 (2013).