---
title: O.C.G.A. § 16-6-20. Bigamy.
collection: code
id: 16-6-20
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 16-6-20 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-6-20
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-6-20.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-6-20/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=1257
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 / SEXUAL OFFENSES
---

# O.C.G.A. § 16-6-20. Bigamy.

(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.

## 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).