O.C.G.A. § 17-9-3

Recommendations for mercy in capital cases other than those of homicide; effect of no recommendation for mercy in capital cases generally and where defendant under age of 17 at time of commission of offense

Applied in 2 court decisions — leading case Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988)

Most recently applied in Stanford v. Kentucky (August 1989)

— Ga

In all capital cases, other than those of homicide, when the verdict is “guilty,” with a recommendation for mercy, it shall be legal and shall mean imprisonment for life. When the verdict is “guilty,” without a recommendation for mercy, it shall be legal and shall mean that the convicted person shall be sentenced to death. When it is shown that a person convicted of a capital offense without a recommendation for mercy had not reached his seventeenth birthday at the time of the commission of the offense, the punishment of such person shall not be

death but shall be imprisonment for life.

Current official text: Official Code of Georgia Annotated (LexisNexis). Digitized from the Internet Archive scan of the OCGA. Reproduced from public-domain Georgia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.