---
type: "Bill"
title: "Penal institutions; certain individuals sentenced between March 18, 1968 and October 31, 1982; allow to petition court for first offender status"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 42-8-66 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to petitions for exoneration and discharge as a first offender, hearings, and retroactive grant of first offender status, so as to allow certain individuals sentenced to a term of incarceration between March 18, 1968, and October 31, 1982, to petition the court for a retroactive grant of first offender status if he or she would have otherwise qualified for sentencing pursuant to this article; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2017_18"
identifier: "HB 261"
citation: "Georgia HB 261 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bill Werkheiser", "Scott Holcomb"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-02-07"
last_action: "2017-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/bba969c7-76e0-434c-a9fb-f58552129535"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "d4f89d54c7a5343ea9cedb1b879d27a5570abd4ee0b1fac9fc6fb1965a03d83b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 261 (2017_18) — Penal institutions; certain individuals sentenced between March 18, 1968 and October 31, 1982; allow to petition court for first offender status

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 42-8-66 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to petitions for exoneration and discharge as a first offender, hearings, and retroactive grant of first offender status, so as to allow certain individuals sentenced to a term of incarceration between March 18, 1968, and October 31, 1982, to petition the court for a retroactive grant of first offender status if he or she would have otherwise qualified for sentencing pursuant to this article; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.


## Votes

- PASSAGE — **173–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bill Werkheiser — primary (person)
- Scott Holcomb — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-02-07** House Hopper
- **2017-02-08** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2017-02-09** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2017-02-27** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-03** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2017-03-03** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2017-03-03** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-20** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-20** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2017-03-24** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2017-03-24** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2017-04-03** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-05-08** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2017-05-08** Act 219 `executive-signature`
- **2017-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/bba969c7-76e0-434c-a9fb-f58552129535`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).