---
type: "Bill"
title: "Crimes and Offenses; family violence battery; change penalty provisions"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 16-5-23.1 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to battery, so as to change penalty provisions relating to family violence battery; to provide for a definition; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2015_16"
identifier: "SB 193"
citation: "Georgia SB 193 (2015_16)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Charlie Bethel", "Curt Thompson", "Elena Parent", "Jesse Stone", "John Kennedy", "Joshua McKoon", "Renee Unterman", "Valencia Seay"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 16
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2015-03-02"
last_action: "2016-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0e339494-5fc6-4bc5-8024-b37b848f4c6c"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "2e34f5e131c02f36c527718676ad85e0981b417f9a69720acd5633d598b8e09a"
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 SB 193 (2015_16) — Crimes and Offenses; family violence battery; change penalty provisions

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 16-5-23.1 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to battery, so as to change penalty provisions relating to family violence battery; to provide for a definition; 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.

1. **As introduced LC29 6289** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/149683.pdf)
2. **As passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/156199.pdf)
3. **Committee sub LC 29 6856S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/155735.pdf)
4. **LC 29 7055S/hss** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/159860.pdf)
5. **SB 193/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/162202.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE — **51–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Charlie Bethel — primary (person)
- Curt Thompson — primary (person)
- Elena Parent — primary (person)
- Jesse Stone — primary (person)
- John Kennedy — primary (person)
- Joshua McKoon — primary (person)
- Renee Unterman — primary (person)
- Valencia Seay — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2015-03-02** Senate Hopper
- **2015-03-03** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2016-01-27** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-01-28** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2016-02-02** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2016-02-02** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2016-02-03** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2016-02-04** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2016-03-10** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-03-15** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2016-03-15** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2016-03-24** Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub
- **2016-03-30** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2016-05-03** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2016-05-03** Act 518 `executive-signature`
- **2016-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0e339494-5fc6-4bc5-8024-b37b848f4c6c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).