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Cal. Penal Code § 686

PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS

Applied in 227 court decisions — leading case Faretta v. California (1975)

Most recently applied in 6 Cal. 5th 998 - Gardner v. Appellate Div. of the Superior Court (March 2019)

Amended by Stats. 1971, Ch. 1800.

How often courts cite this section

187519001925195019752000201990
citing decisions per year

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.

In a criminal action the defendant is entitled:

1. To a speedy and public trial.

2. To be allowed counsel as in civil actions, or to appear and defend in person and with counsel, except that in a capital case he shall be represented in court by counsel at all stages of the preliminary and trial proceedings.

3. To produce witnesses on his behalf and to be confronted with the witnesses against him, in the presence of the court, except that:

(a) Hearsay evidence may be admitted to the extent that it is otherwise admissible in a criminal action under the law of this state.

(b) The deposition of a witness taken in the action may be read to the extent that it is otherwise admissible under the law of this state.

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