THE PENAL CODE OF CALIFORNIA. AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A PENAL CODE. (Approved February 14, 1872.) With all Amendments up to and Including 1923. TITLE OF ACT. 1. Title and Divisions. 1. This act shall be known as The Penal Code of California, and is divided into three parts, as follows: PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS 2. When this Act takes effect. 4. Construction of Penal Code. 6. Effect of Code on past offenses. Courts of Justice to punish 12. Sections declaring crimes, 14. Witnesses, testimony may be 2. This code takes effect at twelve o'clock, noon, on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-three. 3. No part of it is retroactive,unless expressly so declared. 4. The rule of the common law, that penal statutes are to be strictly construed, has no application to this code. All its provisions are to be construed according to the fair import of their terms, with a view to effect its objects and to promote justice. 5. The provisions of this code, so far as they are substantially the same as existing statutes, must be construed as continuations thereof, and not as new enactments. 6. No act or omission, commenced after twelve o'clock noon of the day on which this code takes effect as a law, is criminal or punishable, except as prescribed or authorized by this code, or by some of the statutes which it specifies as continuing in force and as not affected by its provisions, or by some ordinance, municipal, county, or township regulation, passed or adopted, under such statutes and in force when this code takes effect. Any act or omission commenced prior to that time may be inquired of, prosecuted, and punished in the same manner as if this code had not been passed. 7. Words used in this code in the present tense include the future as well as the present; words used in the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter; the singular number includes the plural, and the plural the singular; the word "person" includes a corporation as well as a natural person; the word "county" includes "city and county"; writing includes printing and typewriting; oath includes affirmation or declaration; and every mode of oral statement, under oath or affirmation, is embraced by the term "testify", and every written one in the term "depose"; signature or subscription includes mark, when the person cannot write, his name being written near it, by a person who writes his own name as witness; provided, that when a signature is made by mark it must, in order that the same may be acknowledged or serve as the signature to any sworn statement, be witnessed by two persons who must subscribe their own names as witnesses thereto. The following words have in this code the signification attached to them in this section, unless otherwise apparent from the context: 1. The word "willfully," when applied to the intent with which an act is done or omitted, implies simply a purpose or willingness to commit the act, or make the omission referred to. It does not require any intent to violate law, or to injure another, or to acquire any advantage; 2. The words "neglect," "negligence," "negligent," and "negligently" import a want of such attention to the nature or probable consequences of the act or omission as a prudent man ordinarily bestows in acting in his own concerns; 3. The word "corruptly" imports a wrongful design to acquire or cause some pecuniary or other advantage to the person guilty of the act or omission referred to, or to some other person; 4. The words "malice" and "maliciously" import a wish to vex, annoy, or injure another person, or an intent to do a wrongful act, established either by proof or presumption of law; 5. The word "knowingly” imports only a knowledge that the facts exist which bring the act or omission within the provisions of this code. It does not require any knowledge of the unlawfulness of such act or omission; 6. The word "bribe" signifies anything of value or advantage, present or prospective, or any promise or undertaking to give any, asked, given, or accepted, with a corrupt intent to influence, unlawfully, the person to whom it is given, in his action, vote, or opinion, in any public or official capacity; 7. The word "vessel," when used with reference to shipping, includes ships of all kinds, steam-boats, canal-boats, barges, and every structure adapted to be navigated from place to place for the transportation of merchandise or persons; 8. The words "peace officer" signify any one of the officers mentioned in section eight hundred and seventeen; 9. The word "magistrate" signifies any one of the officers mentioned in the section eight hundred and eight; 10. The words "property" includes both real and personal property; 11. The words "real property" are coextensive with lands, tenements, and hereditaments; 12. The words "personal property" include money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt; 13. The word "month" means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed; the word "daytime" means the period between sunrise and sunset, and the word "night-time" means the period between sunset and sunrise; 14. The word "will" includes codicil; 15. The word "writ" signifies an order or precept in writing, issued in the name of the people, or of a court or judicial officer, and the word "process" a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings; 16. Words and phrases must be construed according to the context and the approved usage of the language; but technical words and phrases, and such others as may have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in law, must be construed according to such peculiar and appropriate meaning; 17. Words giving a joint authority to three or more public officers or other persons, are construed as giving such authority to a majority of them, unless it is otherwise expressed in the act giving the authority; 18. When the seal of the court or public officer is required by law to be affixed to any paper, the word "seal" includes an impression of such seal upon the paper alone, or upon any substance attached to the paper capable of receiving a visible impression. The seal of a private person may be made in like manner, or by the scroll of a pen, or by writing the word "seal" against his name; 19. The word "state," when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the district and territories; 20. The word "section," whenever hereinafter employed, refers to a section of this code, unless some other code or statute is expressly mentioned. 1905-635 8. Whenever, by any of the provisions of this code, an intent to defraud is required in order to constitute any offense, it is sufficient if an intent appears to defraud any person, association, or body politic or corporate, whatever. 1 9. The omission to specify or affirm in this code any liability to damages, penalty, forfeiture, or other remedy imposed by law and allowed to be recovered or enforced in any civil action or proceeding, for any act or omission declared punishable herein, does not affect any right to recover or enforce the same. 10. The omission to specify or affirm in this code any ground of forfeiture of a public office, or other trust or special authority conferred by law, or any power conferred by law to impeach, remove, dispose, or suspend any public officer or other person holding any trust, appointment, or other special authority conferred by law, does not affect such forfeiture or power, or any proceeding authorized by law to carry into effect such impeachment, removal, deposition, or suspension. 11. This code does not affect any power conferred by law upon any court-martial, or other military authority or officer, to impose or inflict punishment upon offenders; nor any power conferred by law upon any public body, tribunal, or officer, to impose or inflict punishment for a contempt. 12. The several sections of this code which declare certain crimes to be punishable as therein mentioned, devolve a duty upon the court authorized to pass sentence, to determine and impose the punishment prescribed. 13. Whenever in this code the punishment for a crime is left undertermined between certain limits, the punishment to be inflicted in a particular case must be determined by the court authorized to pass sentence, within such limits as may be prescribed by this code. 14. The various sections of this code which declare that evidence obtained upon the examination of a person as a witness cannot be received against him in any criminal proceeding, do not forbid such evidence being proved against such person upon any proceedings founded upon a charge of perjury committed in such examination. 15. A crime or public offense is an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it, and to which is annexed, upon conviction, either of the following punishments: 5. Disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit in the state. |