Pierce v. State

Smith, Justice.

This is an interlocutory appeal from appellant’s trial for the crime of child abandonment, a misdemeanor. Appellant seeks to establish that he is not the father. In the trial of any abandonment proceeding where, as here, the question of parentage arises, the accused father may request a paternity blood test, but he must initially pay for it himself. OCGA § 19-10-1 (f) (Code Ann. § 74-9902). However, appellant is indigent and challenges the constitutionality of the statute, claiming that it violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the…