---
title: O.C.G.A. § 45-16-40. Coroner’s charge to jury; power of jury.
collection: code
id: 45-16-40
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 45-16-40 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/45-16-40
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/45-16-40.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/45-16-40/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t45-(v33)-2016-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=cde47f8a_0#page=462
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: PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES / CORONERS / DEATH INVESTIGATIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 45-16-40. Coroner’s charge to jury; power of jury.

(a) The coroner shall charge the jurors to declare, and they shall so declare, whether the person for whom the inquest is held died by:

(1) Homicide;

(2) Suicide;

(3) Accident;

(4) Natural causes; or

(5) Undetermined causes

and all of the circumstances relating to the death.

(b) The jury shall have full and unrestricted power to inquire and pass upon all the matters and things thus given them in charge and they shall have this power even if the whole or a part of the charge is omitted.

## History

Laws 1823, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 538; Code 1863, § 4006; Code 1868, § 4034; Code 1873, § 4105; Code 1882, § 4105; Penal Code 1895, § 1262; Penal Code 1910, § 1344; Code 1933, § 21-213; Ga. L. 1953, Jan.-Feb. Sess., p. 602, § 17; Ga. L. 1990, p. 1735, § 3.