Section 53-1-5. Right of individual who feloniously and intentionally kills or conspires to kill to inherit

   (a) An individual who feloniously and intentionally kills or conspires to kill or procures the killing of another individual forfeits the right to take an interest from the decedent's estate and to serve as a personal representative or trustee of the decedent's estate or any trust created by the decedent. For purposes of this Code section, the killing or conspiring to kill or procuring another to kill is felonious and intentional if the killing would constitute murder or felony murder or voluntary manslaughter under the laws of this state.

(b) An individual who forfeits the right to take an interest from a decedent's estate by virtue of this Code section forfeits the right to take any interest such individual would otherwise take at the decedent's death by intestacy, year's support, will, deed, power of appointment, or by any other conveyance duly executed during life by the decedent and is treated as having predeceased the decedent for purposes of determining the distribution of the decedent's property and of appointing personal representatives or trustees.

(c) This Code section shall have no effect on the rights of the descendants of the individual who forfeits the right to take from the decedent's estate; provided, however, that if the descendants are taking by intestacy in place of the individual who forfeits, the descendants may take only that share of the decedent's estate to which the individual who forfeits would have been entitled. The provisions of Code Section 53-4-64 shall not apply with respect to the descendants of the individual who forfeits the right to take from the decedent's estate unless those descendants are also descendants of the decedent.

(d) A final judgment of conviction or a guilty plea for murder, felony murder, or voluntary manslaughter is conclusive in civil proceedings under this Code section. In the absence of such a conviction or plea, the felonious and intentional killing must be established by clear and convincing evidence.

Code 1981, § 53-1-5, enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10.