Pen. Code, § 3703 · Chapter 2. Suspension of Execution of Death Penalty: Insanity: Pregnancy
Pen. Code, § 3703
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) On decision of a petition filed pursuant to Section 3701, the court shall issue a statement explaining the legal and factual basis for the decision.
(b) If the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the incarcerated person is competent to be executed, the court shall deny the petition.
(c) If the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the incarcerated person is permanently incompetent to be executed within the meaning of subdivision (e) of Section 3701, the court shall vacate the sentence or sentences of death and resentence the incarcerated person to life without the possibility of parole.
(d) In a proceeding under subdivision (a) of Section 3701, if the court finds that the incarcerated person is incompetent to be executed, but does not find by a preponderance of the evidence that competence is unlikely to be restored, the court shall order the warden to suspend the execution and order that the incarcerated person be taken to a medical facility of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and be kept in safe confinement until their competence to be executed is restored. If the prosecuting agency alerts the court that it believes the incarcerated person’s competence has been restored, the court shall again initiate the procedure set forth in Section 3700 and hold a hearing. In that hearing, the prosecution bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the incarcerated person is competent to be executed.
(e) The decision denying or granting the petition will be subject to review under Section 1509.1. An appeal from a decision under this chapter shall not be considered successive, nor shall it render any subsequent appeals successive within the meaning of Section 1509.1.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Repealed and added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 795, Sec. 9. (AB 2657) Effective January 1, 2023.
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=3703.
- Text hash
- sha256 f02e5d78cc0ebb54965f664d27aebd32779c89cc0a56a069d6492d6169328a26
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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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