The most commonly prosecuted felony crimes of violence are Aggravated Assault, Aggravated Stalking and Aggravated Battery.  Each carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and they are all considered major felonies.  Nevertheless, some conduct criminalized by these statutes can be quite minor, so these offenses are very fact sensitive.  These cases must be taken very seriously as they often are sentenced with a jail term and parole is considered only after most of the sentence has been served.

Aggravated Assault is threatening someone with a “deadly weapon.”  The “deadly weapon is often a gun or knife, but it could be anything including fists, feet, a car, or even a pillow if its use is designed to cause serious injury or death.  Aggravated Battery is a touching (usually a hit) that causes permanent disfigurement or renders a body part useless.  The Courts have defined these words very broadly such that a broken tooth, fat lip or black eye can pass as Aggravated Battery.  A common defense to both Aggravated Assault and Aggravated Battery is self defense.  One recent improvement in Georgia Law is that a person who claims they acted in “self defense” is entitled to a full pre-trial hearing to determine whether the actions were justified under the doctrine of “self defense.”  The legal definition of self defense is tricky, depending on where the defense takes place and what thing is being defended.  Generally, the aggressor cannot claim self defense and the amount of force has to be reasonably calculated to the severity of the threat.  A person in their own home protecting themselves or other people from an invader has the strongest claim to self defense.