When it appears that the defendant has committed a public offense, or attempted to commit a public offense, and there is reasonable ground of doubt in which of two or more degrees of the crime or attempted crime he is guilty, he can be convicted of the lowest of such degrees only.
Cal. Penal Code § 1097
The Trial
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 141 Cal. App. 3d 786 - People v. Gonzalez (1983)
Most recently applied in 151 Cal. App. 4th 412 - People v. Gunder (May 2007)
Amended by Stats. 1978, Ch. 1166.
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.