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Pen. Code, § 939.6 · Article 4. Conduct of Investigations

Pen. Code, § 939.6

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) Subject to subdivision (b), in the investigation of a charge, the grand jury shall receive no other evidence than what is:

(1) Given by witnesses produced and sworn before the grand jury;

(2) Furnished by writings, material objects, or other things presented to the senses; or

(3) Contained in a deposition that is admissible under subdivision 3 of Section 686.

(b) Except as provided in subdivision (c), the grand jury shall not receive any evidence except that which would be admissible over objection at the trial of a criminal action, but the fact that evidence that would have been excluded at trial was received by the grand jury does not render the indictment void where sufficient competent evidence to support the indictment was received by the grand jury.

(c) Notwithstanding Section 1200 of the Evidence Code, as to the evidence relating to the foundation for admissibility into evidence of documents, exhibits, records, and other items of physical evidence, the evidence to support the indictment may be based in whole or in part upon the sworn testimony of a law enforcement officer relating the statement of a declarant made out of court and offered for the truth of the matter asserted. Any law enforcement officer testifying as to a hearsay statement pursuant to this subdivision shall have either five years of law enforcement experience or have completed a training course certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training that includes training in the investigation and reporting of cases and testifying at preliminary hearings.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 757, Sec. 4. Effective January 1, 1999.

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&sectionNum=939.6.
Text hash
sha256 22058e7ed9f192f28497931a23cb8d827efe30df8c697c80df6845d8c28d023a
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

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