§ 19-10-1.Abandonment of dependent child; criminal penalties; continuing offense; venue; evidence; expenses of birth of child born out of wedlock; support of child born out of wedlock

This is Georgia’s criminal child-abandonment law. A child is in a “dependent condition” when the parent doesn’t furnish enough food, clothing or shelter for the child’s needs. A father or mother who willfully and voluntarily abandons a child — whether born to married parents or born out of wedlock — and leaves the child in that condition commits a misdemeanor. The crime becomes a felony, punishable by one to three years in prison, when the parent abandons the child and leaves Georgia, or abandons the child after leaving Georgia. That felony can be reduced to a misdemeanor. A third conviction under this section is a felony carrying one to three years that cannot be reduced. A husband and wife are competent witnesses for or against each other in these cases.

Abandonment is a continuing offense. An earlier conviction or acquittal doesn’t block a new prosecution if the child was in a dependent condition for 30 days before the new prosecution began — with one exception. A parent acquitted because the jury or judge found he or she is not the child’s parent can never be tried again for abandoning that child, and the acquittal bars every civil and criminal effort to make that person support the child. The verdict must say that nonparentage was the reason. It is no defense that the parent never supported the child in the first place.

When parentage is disputed, the accused father may request blood tests and arrange to pay for them. On his pretrial motion the court must order the alleged parent, the known parent and the child to be tested, and the results are admitted when offered by a qualified physician, immunologist, geneticist or other qualified person. If a jury decides parentage and the results — not contradicted by other tests — show he can’t be the parent, the jury is told it must find he is not the parent if it believes the witness testified truthfully and the testing was done properly. The defendant pays the testing costs at first; after a verdict finding parentage or nonparentage, the court taxes them as costs, along with fees for the experts whose testimony supported admitting the results.

For a child born out of wedlock, venue lies in the county where the mother and child are domiciled when the arrest warrant is sworn out, or in the child’s county if they are domiciled in different counties. A convicted father may be ordered to pay the mother’s reasonable medical expenses from the birth, and the accused father and the mother may sign a written agreement for regular support payments until the child turns 18, marries or becomes self-supporting — binding on neither of them until the court trying the case approves it. Finally, a judge may suspend the sentence on condition that the parent pays support while the child is a minor, and may order the sentence served — before the child turns 18 or is emancipated — only after a hearing finding that the parent failed or refused to comply. The support terms can be reviewed, up or down, no more often than at two-year intervals. The section was last amended in 2006.