Pen. Code, § 1001.21 · Chapter 2.8. Diversion of Defendants With Cognitive Developmental Disabilities
Pen. Code, § 1001.21
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) This chapter shall apply whenever a case is before any court upon an accusatory pleading at any stage of the criminal proceedings, for any person who has been evaluated by a regional center and who is determined to be a person with a developmental disability by the regional center, and who therefore is eligible for its services.
(b) This chapter applies to any offense that is charged as a misdemeanor or felony offense, except that a defendant may not be placed into a diversion program, pursuant to this section, for any of the following current charged offenses:
(1) Murder or voluntary manslaughter.
(2) An offense for which a person, if convicted, would be required to register pursuant to Section 290, except for a violation of Section 314.
(3) Rape.
(4) Lewd or lascivious act on a child under 14 years of age.
(5) Assault with intent to commit rape, sodomy, or oral copulation, in violation of Section 220.
(6) Commission of rape or sexual penetration in concert with another person, in violation of Section 264.1.
(7) Continuous sexual abuse of a child, in violation of Section 288.5.
(8) A violation of subdivision (b) or (c) of Section 11418.
(c) Diversion shall not be ordered when the defendant previously has been diverted under this chapter within two years prior to the present criminal proceedings.
(d) This section is operative January 1, 2021.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Repealed (in Sec. 16) and added by Stats. 2020, Ch. 11, Sec. 17. (AB 79) Effective June 29, 2020. Operative January 1, 2021, by its own provisions.
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=PEN§ionNum=1001.21.
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- 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
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