Pen. Code, § 799 · Chapter 2. Time of Commencing Criminal Actions
Pen. Code, § 799
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Prosecution for an offense punishable by death or by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for life without the possibility of parole, or for the embezzlement of public money, may be commenced at any time.
(b) (1) Prosecution for a felony offense described in paragraph (1), (2), (3), (4), (6), or (7) of subdivision (a) of Section 261, paragraph (1), (2), (3), (4), or (5) of subdivision (a) of former Section 262, Section 264.1, paragraph (2) or (3) of subdivision (c) of, or subdivision (d), (f), (g), (i), or (k) of, Section 286, paragraph (2) or (3) of subdivision (c) of, or subdivision (d), (f), (g), (i), or (k) of, Section 287 or former Section 288a, subdivision (a) of Section 288 involving substantial sexual conduct as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 1203.066, subdivision (b) of Section 288, Section 288.5, or subdivision (a), (b), (d), (e), or (g) of Section 289 may be commenced at any time.
(2) This subdivision applies to crimes that were committed on or after January 1, 2017, and to crimes for which the statute of limitations that was in effect prior to January 1, 2017, has not run as of January 1, 2017.
(c) This section applies when the defendant was a minor at the time of the commission of the offense and the prosecuting attorney could have petitioned the court for a fitness hearing pursuant to Section 707 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 626, Sec. 38. (AB 1171) Effective January 1, 2022.
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=799.
- Text hash
- sha256 cb2f071a1f2a9dfdd46764ed516b1de3923898f8596d4b2e5d462f5501f83d74
- 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.
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, § 261Printed as Section 261
- Pen. Code, § 264.1Printed as Section 264.1
- Pen. Code, § 286Printed as Section 286
- Pen. Code, § 287Printed as Section 287
- Pen. Code, § 288Printed as Section 288
- Pen. Code, § 288.5Printed as Section 288.5
- Pen. Code, § 289Printed as Section 289
- Pen. Code, § 1203.066Printed as Section 1203.066
Welfare and Institutions Code
Cited by 4 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 799. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
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