Every person is liable to punishment by the laws of this State, for a public offense committed by him therein, except where it is by law cognizable exclusively in the courts of the United States; and except as otherwise provided by law the jurisdiction of every public offense is in any competent court within the jurisdictional territory of which it is committed.
Cal. Penal Code § 777
Of the Local Jurisdiction of Public Offenses
Applied in 26 court decisions — leading case 59 Cal. 2d 128 - In Re De La O (1963)
Most recently applied in 228 Cal. App. 4th 1483 - San Bernardino County Children & Family Services v. A.S. (August 2014)
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.