"u.s.a"california penal code

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681. No person can be punished for a public offense, except upon a
legal conviction in a Court having jurisdiction thereof.



682. Every public offense must be prosecuted by indictment or
information, except:
1. Where proceedings are had for the removal of civil officers of
the state;
2. Offenses arising in the militia when in actual service, and in
the land and naval forces in the time of war, or which the state may
keep, with the consent of Congress, in time of peace;
3. Misdemeanors and infractions;
4. A felony to which the defendant has pleaded guilty to the
complaint before a magistrate, where permitted by law.



683. The proceeding by which a party charged with a public offense
is accused and brought to trial and punishment, is known as a
criminal action.


684. A criminal action is prosecuted in the name of the people of
the State of California, as a party, against the person charged with
the offense.


685. The party prosecuted in a criminal action is designated in
this Code as the defendant.



686. In a criminal action the defendant is entitled:
1. To a speedy and public trial.
2. To be allowed counsel as in civil actions, or to appear and
defend in person and with counsel, except that in a capital case he
shall be represented in court by counsel at all stages of the
preliminary and trial proceedings.
3. To produce witnesses on his behalf and to be confronted with
the witnesses against him, in the presence of the court, except that:

(a) Hearsay evidence may be admitted to the extent that it is
otherwise admissible in a criminal action under the law of this
state.
(b) The deposition of a witness taken in the action may be read to
the extent that it is otherwise admissible under the law of this
state.



686.1. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the defendant in
a capital case shall be represented in court by counsel at all
stages of the preliminary and trial proceedings.



686.2. (a) The court may, after holding a hearing and making the
findings set forth in subdivision (b), order the removal of any
spectator who is intimidating a witness.
(b) The court may order the removal of a spectator only if it
finds all of the following by clear and convincing evidence:
(1) The spectator to be removed is actually engaging in
intimidation of the witness.
(2) The witness will not be able to give full, free, and complete
testimony unless the spectator is removed.
(3) Removal of the spectator is the only reasonable means of
ensuring that the witness may give full, free, and complete
testimony.
(c) Subdivision (a) shall not be used as a means of excluding the
press or a defendant from attendance at any portion of a criminal
proceeding.


686.5. In any case in which a person is arrested and released
without trial or in which a person is arrested, tried, and acquitted,
if such person is indigent and is released or acquitted at a place
to which he has been transported by the arresting agency and which is
more than 25 airline miles from the place of his arrest, the
arresting agency shall, at his request, return or provide for return
of such person to the place of his arrest.



687. No person can be subjected to a second prosecution for a
public offense for which he has once been prosecuted and convicted or
acquitted.


688. No person charged with a public offense may be subjected,
before conviction, to any more restraint than is necessary for his
detention to answer the charge.



689. No person can be convicted of a public offense unless by
verdict of a jury, accepted and recorded by the court, by a finding
of the court in a case where a jury has been waived, or by a plea of
guilty.


690. The provisions of Part 2 (commencing with Section 681) shall
apply to all criminal actions and proceedings in all courts, except
where jurisdictional limitations or the nature of specific provisions
prevent, or special provision is made for particular courts or
proceedings.



691. The following words have in Part 2 (commencing with Section
681) the signification attached to them in this section, unless it is
otherwise apparent from the context:
(a) The words "competent court" when used with reference to the
jurisdiction over any public offense, mean any court the subject
matter jurisdiction of which includes the offense so mentioned.
(b) The words "jurisdictional territory" when used with reference
to a court, mean the city and county, county, city, township, or
other limited territory over which the criminal jurisdiction of the
court extends, as provided by law, and in case of a superior court
mean the county in which the court sits.
(c) The words "accusatory pleading" include an indictment, an
information, an accusation, and a complaint.
(d) The words "prosecuting attorney" include any attorney, whether
designated as district attorney, city attorney, city prosecutor,
prosecuting attorney, or by any other title, having by law the right
or duty to prosecute, on behalf of the people, any charge of a public
offense.
(e) The word "county" includes county, city and county, and city.

(f) "Felony case" means a criminal action in which a felony is
charged and includes a criminal action in which a misdemeanor or
infraction is charged in conjunction with a felony.
(g) "Misdemeanor or infraction case" means a criminal action in
which a misdemeanor or infraction is charged and does not include a
criminal action in which a felony is charged in conjunction with a
misdemeanor or infraction.[/align]

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OF LAWFUL RESISTANCE

692. Lawful resistance to the commission of a public offense may be
made:
1. By the party about to be injured;
2. By other parties.


693. Resistance sufficient to prevent the offense may be made by
the party about to be injured:
1. To prevent an offense against his person, or his family, or
some member thereof.
2. To prevent an illegal attempt by force to take or injure
property in his lawful possession.



694. Any other person, in aid or defense of the person about to be
injured, may make resistance sufficient to prevent the offense.
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697. Public offenses may be prevented by the intervention of the
officers of justice:
1. By requiring security to keep the peace;
2. By forming a police in cities and towns, and by requiring their
attendance in exposed places;
3. By suppressing riots.



698. When the officers of justice are authorized to act in the
prevention of public offenses, other persons, who, by their command,
act in their aid, are justified in so doing.

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701. An information may be laid before any of the magistrates
mentioned in Section 808, that a person has threatened to commit an
offense against the person or property of another.



701.5. (a) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), no peace officer or
agent of a peace officer shall use a person who is 12 years of age or
younger as a minor informant.
(b) No peace officer or agent of a peace officer shall use a
person under the age of 18 years as a minor informant, except as
authorized pursuant to the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement
Act (Division 8.5 (commencing with Section 22950) of the Business and
Professions Code) for the purposes of that act, unless the peace
officer or agent of a peace officer has obtained an order from the
court authorizing the minor's cooperation.
(c) Prior to issuing any order pursuant to subdivision (b), the
court shall find, after consideration of (1) the age and maturity of
the minor, (2) the gravity of the minor's alleged offense, (3) the
safety of the public, and (4) the interests of justice, that the
agreement to act as a minor informant is voluntary and is being
entered into knowingly and intelligently.
(d) Prior to the court making the finding required in subdivision
(c), all of the following conditions shall be satisfied:
(1) The court has found probable cause that the minor committed
the alleged offense. The finding of probable cause shall only be for
the purpose of issuing the order pursuant to subdivision (b), and
shall not prejudice the minor in any future proceedings.
(2) The court has advised the minor of the mandatory minimum and
maximum sentence for the alleged offense.
(3) The court has disclosed the benefit the minor may obtain by
cooperating with the peace officer or agent of a peace officer.
(4) The minor's parent or guardian has consented to the agreement
by the minor unless the parent or guardian is a suspect in the
criminal investigation.
(e) For purposes of this section, "minor informant" means a minor
who participates, on behalf of a law enforcement agency, in a
prearranged transaction or series of prearranged transactions with
direct face-to-face contact with any party, when the minor's
participation in the transaction is for the purpose of obtaining or
attempting to obtain evidence of illegal activity by a third party
and where the minor is participating in the transaction for the
purpose of reducing or dismissing a pending juvenile petition against
the minor.


702. When the information is laid before such magistrate he must
examine on oath the informer, and any witness he may produce, and
must take their depositions in writing, and cause them to be
subscribed by the parties making them.


703. If it appears from the depositions that there is just reason
to fear the commission of the offense threatened, by the person so
informed against, the magistrate must issue a warrant, directed
generally to the sheriff of the county, or any marshal, or policeman
in the state, reciting the substance of the information, and
commanding the officer forthwith to arrest the person informed of and
bring him or her before the magistrate.



704. When the person informed against is brought before the
magistrate, if the charge be controverted, the magistrate shall take
testimony in relation thereto. The evidence shall be reduced to
writing and subscribed by the witnesses. The magistrate may, in his
or her discretion, order the testimony and proceedings to be taken
down in shorthand, and for that purpose he or she may appoint a
shorthand reporter. The deposition or testimony of the witnesses
shall be authenticated in the form prescribed in Section 869.



705. If it appears that there is no just reason to fear the
commission of the offense alleged to have been threatened, the person
complained of must be discharged.



706. If, however, there is just reason to fear the commission of
the offense, the person complained of may be required to enter into
an undertaking in such sum, not exceeding five thousand dollars, as
the magistrate may direct, to keep the peace towards the people of
this state, and particularly towards the informer. The undertaking
is valid and binding for six months, and may, upon the renewal of the
information, be extended for a longer period, or a new undertaking
may be required.



707. If the undertaking required by the last section is given, the
party informed of must be discharged. If he does not give it, the
magistrate must commit him to prison, specifying in the warrant the
requirement to give security, the amount thereof, and the omission to
give the same.


708. If the person complained of is committed for not giving the
undertaking required, he may be discharged by any magistrate, upon
giving the same.


709. The undertaking must be filed by the magistrate in the office
of the Clerk of the county.



710. A person who, in the presence of a Court or magistrate,
assaults or threatens to assault another, or to commit an offense
against his person or property, or who contends with another with
angry words, may be ordered by the Court or magistrate to give
security, as in this Chapter provided, and if he refuse to do so, may
be committed as provided in Section 707.



711. Upon the conviction of the person informed against of a breach
of the peace, the undertaking is broken.



712. Upon the District Attorney's producing evidence of such
conviction to the Superior Court of the county, the Court must order
the undertaking to be prosecuted, and the District Attorney must
thereupon commence an action upon it in the name of the people of
this State.



713. In the action the offense stated in the record of conviction
must be alleged as a breach of the undertaking, and such record is
conclusive evidence of the breach.



714. Security to keep the peace, or be of good behavior, cannot be
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723. When a sheriff or other public officer authorized to execute
process finds, or has reason to apprehend, that resistance will be
made to the execution of the process, the officer may command as many
able-bodied inhabitants of the officer's county as he or she may
think proper to assist in overcoming the resistance and, if
necessary, in seizing, arresting, and confining the persons
resisting, and their aiders and abettors.



724. The officer must certify to the Court from which the process
issued the names of the persons resisting, and their aiders and
abettors, to the end that they may be proceeded against for their
contempt of Court.


726. Where any number of persons, whether armed or not, are
unlawfully or riotously assembled, the sheriff of the county and his
or her deputies, the officials governing the town or city, or any of
them, must go among the persons assembled, or as near to them as
possible, and command them, in the name of the people of the state,
immediately to disperse.



727. If the persons assembled do not immediately disperse, such
magistrates and officers must arrest them, and to that end may
command the aid of all persons present or within the county.

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[align=left]737. All felonies shall be prosecuted by indictment or
information, except as provided in Section 859a. A proceeding
pursuant to Section 3060 of the Government Code shall be prosecuted
by accusation.



738. Before an information is filed there must be a preliminary
examination of the case against the defendant and an order holding
him to answer made under Section 872. The proceeding for a
preliminary examination must be commenced by written complaint, as
provided elsewhere in this code.



739. When a defendant has been examined and committed, as provided
in Section 872, it shall be the duty of the district attorney of the
county in which the offense is triable to file in the superior court
of that county within 15 days after the commitment, an information
against the defendant which may charge the defendant with either the
offense or offenses named in the order of commitment or any offense
or offenses shown by the evidence taken before the magistrate to have
been committed. The information shall be in the name of the people
of the State of California and subscribed by the district attorney.



740. Except as otherwise provided by law, all misdemeanors and
infractions must be prosecuted by written complaint under oath
subscribed by the complainant. Such complaint may be verified on
information and belief.[/align]

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750. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in the event that
the superior court of a county having a population in excess of six
million has discontinued, on or after December 1, 1991, a nightcourt
policy or program with respect to criminal cases, the policy or
program shall, upon approval of the board of supervisors, be
substantially reinstated, with at least the average level of staffing
and session scheduling which occurred during the period of six
months immediately prior to December 1, 1991.