---
type: "Bill"
title: "Crimes and offenses; response to State v. Williams, 2020 Ga. LEXIS 85; provisions"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 6 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to sexual offenses, so as to provide a response to State v. Williams, 2020 Ga. LEXIS 85 (February 10, 2020); to provide that, when a victim is under the age of 16, consent of the victim shall not be a defense to a prosecution for sodomy, aggravated sodomy, child molestation, aggravated child molestation, sexual battery, and aggravated sexual battery; to make conforming changes; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2021_22"
identifier: "HB 258"
citation: "Georgia HB 258 (2021_22)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Beth Camp", "Heath Clark", "James Burchett", "Joseph Gullett", "Martin Momtahan", "Steven Sainz"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 18
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2021-02-02"
last_action: "2021-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c007700d-2eb5-49cd-a3f5-a4467dd3738f"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "d64fd8e6bfdb1e6120a144a0d46ff5bc961a4e647fbaaeb8dd3479c1fd144b2f"
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 258 (2021_22) — Crimes and offenses; response to State v. Williams, 2020 Ga. LEXIS 85; provisions

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 6 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to sexual offenses, so as to provide a response to State v. Williams, 2020 Ga. LEXIS 85 (February 10, 2020); to provide that, when a victim is under the age of 16, consent of the victim shall not be a defense to a prosecution for sodomy, aggravated sodomy, child molestation, aggravated child molestation, sexual battery, and aggravated sexual battery; to make conforming changes; 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. **HB 258/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20212022/202468.pdf)
2. **LC 28 0256S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20212022/199989.pdf)
3. **LC 28 0256S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20212022/199657.pdf)
4. **LC 48 0279/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20212022/196589.pdf)
5. **Sen floor amend 1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20212022/202133.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **173–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Beth Camp — primary (person)
- Heath Clark — primary (person)
- James Burchett — primary (person)
- Joseph Gullett — primary (person)
- Martin Momtahan — primary (person)
- Steven Sainz — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-02** House Hopper
- **2021-02-03** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2021-02-04** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2021-03-05** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-03-08** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2021-03-08** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2021-03-09** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-17** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-03-18** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2021-03-29** Senate Tabled
- **2021-03-31** Senate Taken from Table
- **2021-03-31** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2021-03-31** Senate Passed/Adopted As Amended `passage`
- **2021-03-31** House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub
- **2021-04-09** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2021-04-21** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2021-04-21** Act 16 `executive-signature`
- **2021-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c007700d-2eb5-49cd-a3f5-a4467dd3738f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).