2020 Georgia Code
Title 17 - Criminal Procedure
Chapter 7 - Pretrial Proceedings
Article 5 - Arraignment and Pleas Generally
§ 17-7-97. Proceedings Upon Failure of Clerk to Record Arraignment and Plea; Effect of Proceedings
If the clerk of the court shall fail or neglect to record the arraignment and plea of the person accused of committing a crime at the time the arraignment and plea are made, the recordation may be done at any time afterward by order of the court; and this shall cure the error or omission of the clerk.
(Laws 1833, Cobb's 1851 Digest, p. 835; Code 1863, § 4527; Code 1868, § 4546; Code 1873, § 4640; Code 1882, § 4640; Penal Code 1895, § 948; Penal Code 1910, § 973; Code 1933, § 27-1406.)
Cross references.- Effect of mistake or misprision of clerk or other ministerial officer generally, § 17-1-3.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Waiver for failure to timely call court's attention to defects.
- Law of this state is well settled that a defendant may waive arraignment and plea by failure to call the attention of the court to this defect in the proceedings at the proper time, and when it does not appear that the defendant made any mention of the fact until after the verdict the defendant is conclusively presumed to have done so. Sellers v. State, 82 Ga. App. 761, 62 S.E.2d 395 (1950).
Prima facie proof of guilty plea.
- When there is an entry on the accusation of waiver of arraignment and plea of guilty, signed by the acting solicitor (now district attorney), such record entry furnishes prima facie evidence of a plea of guilty by the defendant. Jackson v. Lowry, 171 Ga. 349, 155 S.E. 466 (1930).
Presumption that guilty plea has been made and entered.
- In the absence of anything to the contrary, it will be presumed that the accused orally plead guilty, and that the clerk of the court entered the plea of guilty upon the minutes of the court as required by the Code. Jackson v. Lowry, 171 Ga. 349, 155 S.E. 466 (1930).
Cited in Johnson v. State, 7 Ga. App. 48, 66 S.E. 148 (1909); Thigpen v. Ault, 231 Ga. 796, 204 S.E.2d 147 (1974).
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Am. Jur. 2d.
- 21 Am. Jur. 2d, Criminal Law, § 570 et seq.
ARTICLE 6 DEMURRERS, MOTIONS, AND SPECIAL PLEAS AND EXCEPTIONS
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Incompetency and Commitment Proceedings, 8 Am. Jur. Trials 483.
Representing the Mentally Ill: Civil Commitment Proceedings, 26 Am. Jur. Trials 97.
PART 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS
