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Cal. Penal Code § 4852.13

Procedure for Restoration of Rights and Application for Pardon

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Parker, Springer Jr., Anderson v. Committee for Sustainable Retirement in Support of Initiative (2013)

Most recently applied in 2025 IL App (1st) 242219 - Kozik v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. (December 2025)

Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 981, Sec. 6

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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.

(a) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (b), if after hearing, the court finds that the petitioner has demonstrated by his or her course of conduct his or her rehabilitation and his or her fitness to exercise all of the civil and political rights of citizenship, the court may make an order declaring that the petitioner has been rehabilitated, and recommending that the Governor grant a full pardon to the petitioner. This order shall be filed with the clerk of the court, and shall be known as a certificate of rehabilitation.

(b) No certificate of rehabilitation shall be granted to a person convicted of any offense specified in Section 290 if the court determines that the petitioner presents a continuing threat to minors of committing any of the offenses specified in Section 290.

(c) A district attorney in either the county where the conviction was obtained or the county of residence of the recipient of the certificate of rehabilitation may petition the superior court to rescind a certificate if it was granted for any offense specified in Section 290. The petition shall be filed in either the county in which the person who has received the certificate of rehabilitation resides or the county in which the conviction was obtained. If the superior court finds that petitioner has demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that the person who has received the certificate presents a continuing threat to minors of committing any of the offenses specified in Section 290, the court shall rescind the certificate.

Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.