---
title: O.C.G.A. § 16-5-2. Voluntary manslaughter.
collection: code
id: 16-5-2
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 16-5-2 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-5-2
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text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-5-2/text
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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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heading_path: CRIMES AND OFFENSES / CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON / HOMICIDE
---

# O.C.G.A. § 16-5-2. Voluntary manslaughter.

(a) A person commits the offense of voluntary manslaughter when he causes the death of another human being under circumstances which would otherwise be murder and if he acts solely as the result of a sudden, violent, and irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a reasonable person; however, if there should have been an interval between the provocation and the killing sufficient for the voice of reason and humanity to be heard, of which the jury in all cases shall be the judge, the killing shall be attributed to deliberate revenge and be punished as murder.

(b) A person who commits the offense of voluntary manslaughter, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 20 years.

## History

Laws 1833, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, pp. 783, 784; Ga. L. 1858, p. 99, § 1; Code 1863, §§ 4222, 4223; Code 1868, §§ 4259, 4260; Code 1873, §§ 4325, 4326; Code 1882, §§ 4325, 4326; Penal Code 1895, §§ 65, 66; Penal Code 1910, §§ 65, 66; Code 1933, §§ 26-1007, 26-1008; Code 1933, § 26-1102, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1.

## Law Reviews

For article recommending more consistency in age requirements of laws pertaining to the welfare of minors, see 6 Ga. St. B. J. 189 (1969). For annual survey of criminal law and procedure, see 35 Mercer L. Rev. 103 (1983).

For note, ‘‘Edge v. State: The Modified Merger Rule Comes Up Short,’’ see 44 Mercer L. Rev. 697 (1993).

For comment on Gaines v. Wolcott, 119 Ga. App. 313, 167 S.E.2d 366 (1969), see 21 Mercer L. Rev. 325 (1969).