If the defendant refuses to answer the accusatory pleading, by demurrer or plea, a plea of not guilty must be entered.
Cal. Penal Code § 1024
Plea
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case People v. Hall (1934)
Most recently applied in Pennywell v. Rushen (May 1983)
Amended by Stats. 1951, Ch. 1674.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.