Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Right to a Jury Trial in Georgia


 . . . Well, this post is not going to be fun to read, but it will be useful for ME when I need to find this information again.  Nearly all of it is cut and paste directly from the text of the source information, but if you use it, your on your own if you have not hired a good Georgia criminal defense attorney. (Link doesn't work??? ooooooh . . . maybe no-one has paid me to turn it on yet.)


NOTE . . . a good Georgia criminal defense attorney is different than a criminal attorney.

GEORGIA LAW ON THE SUBJECT
“The right of trial by jury as declared by the Constitution of the state or as given by a statute of the state shall be preserved to the parties inviolate.”

US Constitution
Criminal Jury Trials
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

Civil Jury Trials
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

GA Constitution
(a) The right to trial by jury shall remain inviolate, except that the court shall render judgment without the verdict of a jury in all civil cases where no issuable defense is filed and where a jury is not demanded in writing by either party. In criminal cases, the defendant shall have a public and speedy trial by an impartial jury; and the jury shall be the judges of the law and the facts.

(b) A trial jury shall consist of 12 persons; but the General Assembly may prescribe any number, not less than six, to constitute a trial jury in courts of limited jurisdiction and in superior courts in misdemeanor cases.

(c) The General Assembly shall provide by law for the selection and compensation of persons to serve as grand jurors and trial jurors.

Some exceptions include:
However, the right is not conferred in all cases:
-                  Suits in equity  
-                  Injunctions
-                  Garnishments
-                  Enforcement of equitable liens
-                  Appeals from decisions of the unemployment compensation Board

The demand for jury trial can be made at any time up until the case is called for trial, or upon the call for trial. 
o   Carleton v. State, 176 Ga. App. 399 (1985).  (However, note that if a person has the opportunity to invoke the right to jury trial, and does not do so immediately, s/he is deemed to have waived the right, and the right to revoke that waiver is not absolute.  It proof is shown that allowing revocation of the waiver would “substantially delay or impede the cause of justice”, the court may deny the request.)

(link to your website could be right HERE!)

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