Ferguson v. Georgia

The State of Georgia is the only State — indeed, apparently the only jurisdiction in the common-law world — to retain the common-law rule that a person charged with a criminal offense is incompetent to testify under oath in his own behalf at his trial. Georgia in 1866 abolished by statute the common-law rules of incompetency for most other persons. However, the statute, now Georgia Code § 38-416, expressly retained the incompetency rule as to persons “charged in any criminal proceeding with the *571commission of any indictable offense or any offense punishable on summary conviction . . . Two…