Section 38-2-444. Depositions

   (a) At any time after charges have been signed as provided in Code Section 38-2-410, any party may take oral or written depositions unless an authority competent to convene a court-martial for the trial of the charges forbids it for good cause. If a deposition is to be taken before charges are referred for trial, such an authority may designate officers to represent the prosecution and the defense and may authorize the officers to take the depositions of any witness.

(b) The party at whose instance a deposition is to be taken shall give to every other party reasonable written notice of the time and place for taking the deposition.

(c) Depositions may be taken before and authenticated by any military or civil officer authorized by the laws of this state or by the laws of the place where the deposition is taken to administer oaths.

(d) A duly authenticated deposition taken upon reasonable notice to the other parties, insofar as it is otherwise admissible under the rules of evidence, may be read into evidence before any court-martial or in any proceeding before a court of inquiry, if it appears:

   (1) That the witness resides or is beyond the state in which the court-martial or court of inquiry is ordered to sit, or beyond the distance of 100 miles from the place of trial or hearing;

   (2) That the witness by reason of death, age, sickness, bodily infirmity, imprisonment, military necessity, nonamenability to process, or other reasonable cause is unable or refuses to appear and testify in person at the place of trial or hearing; or

   (3) That the present whereabouts of the witness are unknown.

Ga. L. 1955, p. 10, § 60.49.