Cal. Const., art. I, § 14 · Article I. DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
Cal. Const., art. I, § 14
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Felonies shall be prosecuted as provided by law, either by indictment or, after examination and commitment by a magistrate, by information.
A person charged with a felony by complaint subscribed under penalty of perjury and on file in a court in the county where the felony is triable shall be taken without unnecessary delay before a magistrate of that court. The magistrate shall immediately give the defendant a copy of the complaint, inform the defendant of the defendant’s right to counsel, allow the defendant a reasonable time to send for counsel, and on the defendant’s request read the complaint to the defendant. On the defendant’s request the magistrate shall require a peace officer to transmit within the county where the court is located a message to counsel named by defendant.
A person unable to understand English who is charged with a crime has a right to an interpreter throughout the proceedings.
Notes and commentary — not constitutional text
History
Sec. 14 added Nov. 5, 1974, by Prop. 7. Res.Ch. 90, 1974.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CONS§ionNum=SEC.%2014.&article=I
- Text hash
- sha256 e2963c612cf16b27b9d3263c2a152470367b7330304732d55b1b92370f66e7c1
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.