---
title: O.C.G.A. § 16-6-21. Marrying a bigamist.
collection: code
id: 16-6-21
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 16-6-21 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-6-21
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-6-21.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-6-21/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=1259
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. § 16-6-21. Marrying a bigamist.

(a) An unmarried man or woman commits the offense of marrying a bigamist when he marries a person whom he knows to be the wife or husband of another.

(b) It shall be an affirmative defense that the prior spouse of the bigamist has been continually absent for a period of seven years, during which time the accused did not know the prior spouse of the bigamist to be alive, or that the accused reasonably believed the bigamist was eligible to remarry.

(c) A person convicted of the offense of marrying a bigamist 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, § 4417; Code 1868, § 4458; Code 1873, § 4532; Code 1882, § 4532; Penal Code 1895, § 379; Penal Code 1910, § 370; Code 1933, § 26-5604; Code 1933, § 26-2008, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1.

## Cross References

Marriage generally, T. 19, C. 3.