16-6-20. Bigamy.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

(a)
A person commits the offense of bigamy when he, being married and knowing that his lawful spouse is living, marries another person or carries on a bigamous cohabitation with another person.#
(b)
It shall be an affirmative defense that the prior spouse has been continually absent for a period of seven years, during which time the accused did not know the prior spouse to be alive, or that the accused reasonably believed he was eligible to remarry.#
(c)
A person convicted of the offense of bigamy shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years.#

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Laws 1833, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 814; Code 1863, §§ 4415, 4416; Code 1868, §§ 4456, 4457; Code 1873, §§ 4530, 4531; Code 1882, §§ 4530, 4531; Penal Code 1895, §§ 376, 377, 378; Ga. L. 1910, p. 61, § 1; Penal Code 1910, §§ 367, 368, 369; Code 1933, §§ 26-5601, 26-5602, 26-5603; Code 1933, § 26-2007, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1.

Cross references

Marriage generally, T. 19, C. 3.

Law reviews

For note, ‘‘Mistake of Fact and Mistake of Law as Defenses to a Prosecution for Bigamy,’’ see 15 Mercer L. Rev. 275 (1963).

Read the official page (the state's PDF, opened at the page this text was read from).

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Text read from t16-ch1-6-(v14)-2019-pdf.pdf, Volume V14, 2019 edition, pages 1257 to 1258; merge action: carried; file SHA-256 7e331f0ca7d3.