Cal. Codes » Penal Code
California Codes

Cal. Penal Code § 190.5 (2026)

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section CA-LEGleginfo.legislature.ca.gov JustiaCode on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

(a)Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the death penalty shall not be imposed upon any person who is under the age of 18 at the time of the commission of the crime. The burden of proof as to the age of such person shall be upon the defendant.

(b)The penalty for a defendant found guilty of murder in the first degree, in any case in which one or more special circumstances enumerated in Section 190.2 or 190.25 has been found to be true under Section 190.4, who was 16 years of age or older and under the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of the crime, shall be confinement in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole or, at the discretion of the court, 25 years to life.

(c)The trier of fact shall determine the existence of any special circumstance pursuant to the procedure set forth in Section 190.4.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 47 cases (4 in the last 5 years), 1983–2025 · leading case: People v. Gutierrez, 324 P.3d 245 (Cal. 2014).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
People v. Gutierrez, 324 P.3d 245 (Cal. 2014). · cites it 6× “] Penal Code section 190.5 was amended specifically to make youthful offenders, who committed what would have been a death-eligible crime for an adult, subject to special circumstances and LWOP.”
Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012). · cites it 2× “According to available data, only about 15% of all juvenile life-without- parole sentences come from those 15 jurisdictions, while 85% come from the 29 mandatory ones.”
People v. Fudge, 875 P.2d 36 (Cal. 1994). · cites it 4× “He committed the murders five months after his eighteenth birthday; thus, he would have been ineligible for the death penalty had he been just five months younger (Pen. Code, § 190.5). [1] Another consideration weighing against the death penalty was defendant's prior criminal…”
Jones v. Mississippi, 593 U.S. 98 (2021). “5 In light of those statis- tics, the Court reasoned that a discretionary sentencing —————— 5 See Cal. Penal Code Ann. §190.5 (West 2014); Ga.”
State of Iowa v. Damion John Seats, 865 N.W.2d 545 (Iowa 2015). · cites it 2× “) (allowing the option of life imprisonment without parole for defendants convicted of capital murder or treason while younger than eighteen years of age); Cal. Penal Code § 190.5 (West, Westlaw through urgency legis.”
Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988). · cites it 2× “[30] California (Cal. Penal Code Ann. § 190.5 (West 1988)) (age 18); Colorado ( Colo.”
People v. Guinn, 94 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 7447 (Cal. Ct. App. 1994). · cites it 4× “Penal Code section 190.5, enacted in 1990 and applicable to this case, provides in relevant part: “(b) The penalty for a defendant found guilty of murder in the first degree, in any case in which one or more special circumstance[s] .”
People v. Padilla, 509 P.3d 975 (Cal. 2022). “It is important to remember that, even before Miller/Montgomery, Penal Code section 190.5, subdivision (b) gave the trial court discretion to impose a 25 years to life sentence to a minor, rather than LWOP.”
People v. Bramit, 210 P.3d 1171 (Cal. 2009). · cites it 2× “Furthermore, although it was a brutal murder, as most all death-eligible murders are, it was more impulsive than deliberate, and there is some truth to trial counsel's statement during closing argument that it was not "the worst of the worst" murders.”
People v. Mower, 49 P.3d 1067 (Cal. 2002). “Code, § 501: placing on the defendant the burden of proof as to the “defense” of minority against imposition or infliction of the death penalty (Pen. Code § 190.5, subd. (a))]; People v.”
People v. Blackwell, 202 Cal. App. 4th 144 (Cal. Ct. App. 2011). · cites it 3× “What, then, was the maximum sentence authorized by the verdict? The mandatory sentence for an adult defendant convicted of first degree special circumstance murder is LWOP when the death penalty has not been sought.”
State v. Battle, 661 S.W.2d 487 (Mo. 1983). · cites it 2× “, Cal.Penal Code § 190.5 (West Supp.1982) (defendant under 18 at time of offense); Conn.”
Show all 47 citing cases →
— Cal. Penal Code § 190.5(b) — 7 cases
Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012). “According to available data, only about 15% of all juvenile life-without- parole sentences come from those 15 jurisdictions, while 85% come from the 29 mandatory ones.”
People v. Gutierrez, 324 P.3d 245 (Cal. 2014). “] Penal Code section 190.5 was amended specifically to make youthful offenders, who committed what would have been a death-eligible crime for an adult, subject to special circumstances and LWOP.”
State of Washington v. Joel R. Ramos, 357 P.3d 680 (Wash. Ct. App. 2015).
Miller v. Alabama (2012).
Miller v. Alabama (2012).
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.