---
title: O.C.G.A. § 17-7-51. Special presentments treated as indictments; entry upon minutes; prosecutions upon special presentments.
collection: code
id: 17-7-51
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 17-7-51 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/17-7-51
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/17-7-51.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/17-7-51/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t17-(v15)-2020-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=8c04ccfe_0#page=471
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
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current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CRIMINAL PROCEDURE / PRETRIAL PROCEEDINGS / INDICTMENTS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 17-7-51. Special presentments treated as indictments; entry upon minutes; prosecutions upon special presentments.

All special presentments by the grand jury charging defendants with violations of the penal laws shall be treated as indictments. It shall not be necessary for the clerk of the court to enter the special presentments in full upon the minutes, but only the statement of the case and finding of the grand jury as in cases of indictments. It shall not be necessary for the district attorney to frame bills of indictment on the special presentments, but he may arraign defendants upon the special presentments and put them on trial in like manner as if the presentments were bills of indictment.

## History

Orig. Code 1863, § 4520; Code 1868, § 4539; Ga. L. 1873, p. 51, § 1; Code 1873, § 4632; Code 1882, § 4632; Penal Code 1895, § 931; Penal Code 1910, § 956; Code 1933, § 27-703.