BILL NUMBER: AB 1951	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Salas

                        FEBRUARY 12, 2016

   An act to amend Section 26 of the Penal Code, relating to crimes.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1951, as introduced, Salas. Crimes: capacity.
   Existing law provides that all persons are capable of committing
crimes except those belonging to specified classes, including, among
others, persons who are mentally incapacitated or who committed the
act charged without being conscious thereof.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those
provisions.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 26 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
   26.  All persons are capable of committing crimes except those
belonging to the following classes: 
   One-- Children 
    (a)     Children  under  the
age of 14,   14 years of age,  in the absence of
clear proof that at the time of committing the act charged against
them, they knew its wrongfulness. 
   Two-- Persons 
    (   b)     Persons  who are
mentally incapacitated. 
   Three-- Persons 
    (   c)     Persons  who
committed the act or made the omission charged under an ignorance or
mistake of fact, which disproves any criminal intent. 
   Four-- Persons 
    (   d)     Persons  who
committed the act charged without being conscious thereof. 
   Five-- Persons 
    (   e)     Persons  who
committed the act or made the omission charged through misfortune or
by accident, when it appears that there was no evil design,
intention, or culpable negligence. 
   Six-- Persons (unless the crime be punishable with death) who

    (f)     Unless the crime is punishable with
death, persons who  committed the act or made the omission
charged under threats or menaces sufficient to show that they had
reasonable cause to and did believe their lives would be endangered
if they refused.