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Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 16. CRIMES AND OFFENSES · Chapter 6. SEXUAL OFFENSES

16-6-3. Statutory rape.

Active

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

  1. (a)

    A person commits the offense of statutory rape when he or she engages in sexual intercourse with any person under the age of 16 years and not his or her spouse, provided that no conviction shall be had for this offense on the unsupported testimony of the victim.#

  2. (b)

    Except as provided in subsection (c) of this Code section, a person convicted of the offense of statutory rape shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 20 years; provided, however, that if the person so convicted is 21 years of age or older, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than ten nor more than 20 years. Any person convicted under this subsection of the offense of statutory rape shall, in addition, be subject to the sentencing and punishment provisions of Code Section 17-10-6.2.#

  3. (c)

    If the victim is at least 14 but less than 16 years of age and the person convicted of statutory rape is 18 years of age or younger and is no more than four years older than the victim, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.#

  4. (d)
    1. (1)

      As used in this subsection, the term “sexual felony” shall have the same meaning as set forth in paragraph (2) of subsection (j) of Code Section 16-5-21.#

    2. (2)

      Any person having been previously convicted of a sexual felony who is convicted of the felony offense of statutory rape when the individual convicted was 21 years of age or older, shall be punished by imprisonment for life or a split sentence that is a term of imprisonment followed by probation for life. As a condition of probation, the court shall impose the requirement of electronic monitoring as set forth in paragraph (14) of subsection (a) of Code Section 42-8-35.#

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

Ga. L. 1918, p. 259, §§ 1, 2; Code 1933, §§ 26-1303, 26-1304; Code 1933, § 26-2018, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 715, § 1; Ga. L. 1995, p. 957, § 3; Ga. L. 1996, p. 871, § 1; Ga. L. 1996, p. 1115, § 3; Ga. L. 2006, p. 379, § 10/HB 1059; Ga. L. 2023, p. 637, § 3-6/HB 188, effective May 4, 2023.

Amendments

The 2023 amendment, effective May 4, 2023, added subsection (d). See Editor’s notes for applicability.

Editor's notes

Ga. L. 2023, p. 637, § 1-1/HB 188, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as ‘Mariam’s Law.’” Ga. L. 2023, p. 637, § 7-1/HB 188, not codified by the General Assembly, provides, in part, that the punishment provisions of subsection (d) shall apply to all offenses committed on and after July 1, 2023.

Law reviews

For annual survey on criminal law, see 71 Mercer L. Rev. 69 (2019).

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)-pdf.pdf, Volume V14, 2019 edition, 2025 supplement, pages 169 to 170; merge action: replaced; file SHA-256 575f9121d25f.