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Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 24. EVIDENCE · Chapter 6. WITNESSES · Article 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

24-6-601. General rule of competency.

Active

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

  1. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, every person is competent to be a witness.

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

Code 1981, § 24-6-601, enacted by Ga. L. 2011, p. 99, § 2/HB 24.

Cross references

Adultery generally, § 16-6-19. Child abandonment generally, § 19-10-1. Testimony as to child’s description of sexual contact or physical abuse, § 24-8-820. Competency to testify in general, Fed. R. Evid. 601.

Law reviews

For comment discussing the effect of mental unsoundness on the competency of witnesses, in light of O’Shea v. Jewel Tea Co., 233 F.2d 530 (9th Cir. 1956), see 19 Ga. B.J. 533 (1957). For comment on Western & A.R.R. v. Hart, 95 Ga. App. 810, 99 S.E.2d 302 (1957), holding that the accuracy of the opinion of a 12 year old as to the speed of a train is a matter for the jury to decide and its admission into evidence was not error, see 20 Ga. B.J. 395 (1958). For comment on Bacon v. State, 222 Ga. 151, 149 S.E.2d 111 (1966), see 18 Mercer L. Rev. 506 (1967). For note discussing the admissibility of husband and wife’s testimony concerning nonaccess in determining the legitimacy of a child, see 6 Ga. St. B.J. 448 (1970). For article, “The Evidence Code and Cases Instituted in Consequence of Adultery,” see 15 Ga. St. B.J. 176 (1979). For article, “The Need for a Special Exception to the Hearsay Rule in Child Sexual Abuse Cases,” see 21 Ga. St. B.J. 50 (1984). For article, “An Analysis of Georgia’s Proposed Rules of Evidence,” see 26 Ga. St. B.J. 173 (1990). For note, “The Georgia Child Hearsay Statute, and the Sixth Amendment: Is There a Confrontation?,” see 10 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 367 (1994).

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 t24-ch1-7-(v20)-2023-pdf.pdf, Volume V20, 2023 edition, pages 446 to 447; merge action: carried; file SHA-256 f2f9d1712dd4.