Opinion ID: 76238
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: State Courts

Text: 40 In addition to imposing certain law enforcement duties, the State has assigned sheriffs specific duties in the State's superior courts. 19 Superior courts are the State's trial courts of general jurisdiction. See Ga. Const. art. VI, § 4, ¶ 1; O.C.G.A. § 15-6-8. 20 That sheriffs perform an integral role in the state judicial system is further indicia of how sheriffs act for the State. 41 The State mandates that sheriffs must attend all sessions of superior courts in their respective counties and never ... leave [court] without the presence of himself or his deputy. O.C.G.A. § 15-16-10(a)(2). The State also mandates that sheriffs must execute and return the processes and orders of the state courts. O.C.G.A. § 15-16-10(a)(1). Sheriffs also must publish sales, citations, and other proceedings as required by law, keep an execution docket, keep a book of all sales made by process of state courts, and keep many other specified records. O.C.G.A. § 15-16-10(a)(4)-(6). This same statute provides that [i]f any sheriff or deputy fails to comply with any provision of [O.C.G.A. § 15-16-10(a)], he shall be fined for a contempt. O.C.G.A. § 15-16-10(b). Thus, the State directs sheriffs to enforce state court orders and punishes them if they do not. The superior court clerk also delivers to the sheriff or his deputy a precept containing the names of the persons drawn as grand jurors, and the sheriff or his deputy serves the summons on each grand juror in person or by mailing, as determined by the sheriff. O.C.G.A. § 15-12-65. 21 42 The State also has assigned sheriffs the function of determining which companies may make bonds in their jurisdictions. O.C.G.A. § 17-6-15. While state judges decide whether a county jail inmate, charged with a felony, is entitled to bond, sheriffs approve bonding companies in their counties for the State's criminal cases. Sheriffs must publish and make available written rules and regulations defining acceptable sureties and prescribing under what conditions sureties may be accepted. O.C.G.A. § 17-6-15(b)(1). The State also prescribes the qualifications of professional bondspersons. O.C.G.A. § 17-6-50. The State in effect places the authority to accept sureties in felony cases in the office of the sheriff and not in the superior court. 22 Jarvis v. J & J Bonding Co., 239 Ga. 213, 215, 236 S.E.2d 370 (1977) (construing Georgia Code § 27-418 (1933), which is the precursor to O.C.G.A. § 17-6-15). 43 The State also requires sheriffs to deposit cash bonds held by the sheriff in one or more interest-bearing trust accounts, O.C.G.A. § 15-16-27(a), and to remit that interest to a state agency, the Georgia Indigent Defense Council. O.C.G.A. §§ 15-16-27(b), 17-12-32. That Council then redistributes the money to local indigent defense programs. O.C.G.A. §§ 15-16-27(b), 17-12-30 et seq. 23 44 These state court and bond-related duties do not stem from laws of general application, but from statutes whereby the State requires sheriffs to perform specific tasks that are state functions in the State's criminal justice system. These statutes are not mere general regulatory control. Instead, they represent the State delegating discrete state functions in the State's criminal justice system specifically to sheriffs.