Pen. Code, § 190.5 · Chapter 1. Homicide
Pen. Code, § 190.5
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the death penalty shall not be imposed upon any person who is under the age of 18 at the time of the commission of the crime. The burden of proof as to the age of such person shall be upon the defendant.
(b) The penalty for a defendant found guilty of murder in the first degree, in any case in which one or more special circumstances enumerated in Section 190.2 or 190.25 has been found to be true under Section 190.4, who was 16 years of age or older and under the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of the crime, shall be confinement in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole or, at the discretion of the court, 25 years to life.
(c) The trier of fact shall determine the existence of any special circumstance pursuant to the procedure set forth in Section 190.4.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended June 5, 1990, by initiative Proposition 115, Sec. 12.
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=190.5.
- Text hash
- sha256 6996a10d97ed52eebbbcf83b91c4f595eef5c7c2619beaa6a1b4e24201feea94
- 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
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Cited by 5 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 190.5. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, § 190Printed as Sections 190.1, 190.2, 190.3, 190.4, and 190.5
- Pen. Code, § 190.05Printed as Sections 190.1, 190.2, 190.3, 190.4, and 190.5
- Pen. Code, § 190.2Printed as Sections 190.1, 190.3, 190.4, and 190.5
- Pen. Code, § 190.25Printed as Sections 190.1, 190.2, 190.3, 190.4, and 190.5
- Pen. Code, § 1385.1Printed as Sections 190.1 to 190.5, inclusive
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.