Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.603 · Article 1. General Provisions
In general
Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
(a) Automatic appeal to Supreme Court
If a judgment imposes a sentence of death, an appeal by the defendant is automatically taken to the Supreme Court.
(b) Copies of judgment
When a judgment of death is rendered, the superior court clerk must immediately send certified copies of the commitment to the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Governor, the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, and the California Appellate Project in -San Francisco.
Notes and commentary — not rule text
History
Rule 8.603 renumbered and amended effective April 25, 2019; repealed and adopted as rule 34 effective January 1, 2004; previously amended and renumbered as rule 8.600 effective January 1, 2007; previously amended effective January 1, 2018.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/eight/rule8_603
- Text hash
- sha256 eaf9c7deede443e7d38fa73ed24324962a552a29edd2914cb5ccd63664620905
- Composed by
- compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph
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.