UNDERSTANDING CALIFORNIA LEWD ACT CHARGES UNDER PENAL CODE SECTION 288

You may be reading this because you are currently facing an accusation or dealing with the long-term aftermath of a conviction under California Penal Code section 288, which criminalizes lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of fourteen. You may have received an ominous call from a detective or endured officers executing an intrusive search warrant at your home as law enforcement builds an active investigation, or you might already face a formal charge filed by the district attorney. In either scenario, you want the plain truth about what this penal provision actually punishes before you decide your next move.

Alternatively, a painful ghost from your past might be the actual catalyst here, where a historical conviction you sustained years or decades ago under this law is instead the reason you are reading this, casting a dark shadow over your background checks, complicating a home purchase, a mortgage approval, an apartment lease, or a housing arrangement, derailing employment opportunities, poisoning a new relationship you attempt to build, or otherwise destabilizing your daily existence. Sex offender registration under California Penal Code section 290 inflicts deep personal humiliation, exposes your personal information to widespread public scrutiny via the official Megan’s Law database as well as hundreds of commercial predatory websites exploiting your profile for profit, and traps you under the constant threat of a fresh criminal prosecution if you miss your annual update within five working days of your birthday or overlook the update required at least once every 30 days whilst you are a transient. See Cal. Pen. Code § 290.012(a) (“register annually, within five working days of his or her birthday”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290.011(a) (“reregister no less than once every 30 days”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290.012(c) cross-references Cal. Pen. Code § 290.011.

This article applies to you in either position. While the underlying child molestation offense is defined strictly within Cal. Pen. Code §288, the standard path to terminate your registration duty is a separate post-conviction petition under Cal. Pen. Code §290.5 (a), although Penal Code section 290(b) also recognizes termination “as otherwise provided by law,” such as relief that vacates the conviction.” See Cal. Pen. Code §290.5(b) (“unless the duty to register is terminated pursuant to Section 290.5 or as otherwise provided by law”).

A clear grasp of the statutory elements, combined with a comprehensive review of the independent tier termination requirements, benefits you whether you’re staring down the barrel of a PC 288 investigation or enduring the relentless stigma of a past conviction.

Cal. Pen. Code § 288 prohibits any touching of a child under the age of fourteen years when a person commits the touching for a sexual purpose. The public commonly calls a conviction under this law “child molestation,” though the legal definition extends well beyond that ignominious and repulsive term, and this guide specifies the elements of the offense, the penalties mandated for each statutory subdivision, your available legal defenses, and the collateral consequences following a conviction, including sex offender registration under Cal. Pen. Code § 290, the measure establishing California’s tiered sex offender registration scheme.

Second Chances Law Group stands as the singular, definitive authority for individuals navigating the legal tiers of California sex offender designations under the state’s registration framework. Confronting these charges without elite, sophisticated post-conviction advocacy ensures the permanent destruction of personal liberty, as a conviction instantly triggers the severe collateral consequences established under Cal. Pen. Code § 290. The specific subdivision sustained determines whether an individual is cataloged into a tiered registration category under the modern tier system or remains subject to a lifetime registration order, making an exhaustive, aggressive legal analysis of the record of conviction the only viable mechanism to salvage a human life from total state-mandated annihilation.

CAL. PEN. CODE § 288(a): THE STATUTORY DEFINITION AND ITS ELEMENTS

Under California Penal Code § 288(a), you face an uncompromising statutory framework where the state must prove you willfully and lewdly committed a lascivious act with a child under fourteen. The law defines the baseline of this offense as a specific intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desires of either yourself or the minor. This reality carries immediate, life-altering stakes: the offense functions strictly as a straight felony with state prison exposures of three, six, or eight years, leaving the court with zero misdemeanor options at sentencing.

When your future hangs in the balance, you must realize how broadly the law defines physical contact. The statutory threshold treats contact through layers of clothing with the exact same severity as bare-skin exposure. If you place an eight-year-old stepdaughter's hand on the crotch of your pants, or if you work as a ninth-grade teacher and grope a thirteen-year-old student’s breasts through her clothing, the legal requirement for a physical act is fully satisfied. Similarly, a babysitter kissing a child's inner thighs to achieve personal sexual gratification immediately triggers full criminal exposure under the statute. Actual biological gratification is irrelevant to the statutory elements; the offense is legally complete the moment the contact occurs with the prohibited intent.

Before a jury can convict you, the prosecution must prove three elements beyond a reasonable doubt under CALCRIM No. 1110, the jury instruction listing the elements of this offense. The prosecution has to prove you willfully touched any part of a child’s body, on the bare skin or through clothing, or willfully caused a child to touch their own body, your body, or someone else’s body. Prosecutors also carry the burden of proving you acted with the intent of arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions, or sexual desires of yourself or the child. The child must have been under fourteen years old at the time of the touching.

You act willfully if you do something on purpose. The prosecution has no obligation to prove you intended to break the law, hurt anyone, or gain an advantage. If the contact was accidental, our sex crimes charges dismissal attorneys at Second Chances Law Group turn the willfulness requirement against the prosecution: accidental contact with a child, even contact with a sexual organ, fails to rise to the level of a lewd act under Cal. Pen. Code § 288. Many people facing this charge also assume the prosecution must prove actual arousal. The statute requires no such proof. The jury decides whether you touched the child on purpose and with the intent to cause arousal or gratify a sexual desire, regardless of whether any arousal or gratification occurred.

Cal. Pen. Code § 664, the general attempt statute, operates in conjunction with Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) to criminalize an attempted lewd act. Under this combined framework, an attempt requires a specific intent to commit the underlying offense and a direct, ineffectual act toward its completion that progresses beyond mere preparation. For example, if you explicitly solicit a child to touch your genitals while harboring a sexual intent, and the child refuses, a jury can convict you of an attempted lewd act. Even if you never consummate any physical touching, your direct solicitation constitutes a sufficient overt step taken with the required criminal intent to satisfy the statutory elements of the crime. (See Cal. Pen. Code §21a: “An attempt to commit a crime consists of two elements: a specific intent to commit the crime, and a direct but ineffectual act done toward its commission.”)

If a judge convicts you of attempted child molestation under Cal. Pen. Code §§ 664 and 288(a), the judge can sentence you to eighteen months, three years, or four years in state prison and fine you up to five thousand dollars, and you ordinarily must register as a Tier 2 sex offender for at least twenty years, unless another tier-three ground applies. (See Cal. Pen. Code § 664(a), in pertinent part: “one-half the term of imprisonment prescribed upon a conviction of the offense attempted.” Apply it to the three, six, or eight years in Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a). Regarding length of registration, see Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(2)(A) (“a minimum of 20 years”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(2)(B) makes the tier-two rule inapplicable when Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3) applies.)

Moreover, removal from the sex offender registry isn’t automatic after those twenty years, such that you would need to file a petition and confront the possibility or probability that the prosecution could object to your petition on community safety grounds and prevail on the judge to keep you anchored to the registry for up to half-a-decade beyond the denial of your petition before you can even file a subsequent petition. Our Second Chances Law Group sex offender registration termination attorneys have successfully thwarted such efforts by convincing judges to grant petitions over the objection of the prosecutor. However, Prosecutors can charge each lewd act as a separate count, even if you commit the acts in rapid succession.

A prosecutor can charge multiple counts from a single encounter lasting less than a minute.

For example, if you grope the minor’s buttocks and then immediately grope the same minor’s pubic area, you face two separate charges under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a).

LEWD ACTS ACCOMPLISHED BY FORCE, VIOLENCE, DURESS, MENACE, OR FEAR

Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b)(1) applies to a lewd act described in Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) if you commit the act through force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury upon the victim or another person. The offense is a felony. A judge can sentence you to five, eight, or ten years in state prison and fine you up to ten thousand dollars, and you must register as a Tier III sex offender for life, the harshest classification in the registration scheme.

To convict you pursuant to Cal. Pen. Code §288(b)(1), the “lewd acts with a child by force or fear” statute, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you accomplished the lewd act by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury. If the prosecution relies on force, it must prove you applied force substantially different from, or substantially greater than, the physical contact involved in the touching itself. See CALCRIM No. 1111.

If the jury finds force of this kind, you face an upper base term of ten years in state prison in place of the eight-year upper term for a standard conviction. If the prosecution also pleads and proves a qualifying One Strike circumstance against a victim under fourteen, Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(j)(1) requires life without the possibility of parole for an adult offender. (See Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b)(1) (“5, 8, or 10 years”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(c)(4) lists Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(j)(1) imposes life without parole for a victim under 14 when a Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(d) circumstance applies.

For example, if you grab a child's genitalia, you ordinarily violate Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a), because a grab without additional force, duress, menace, or fear is part of the lewd touching itself.

If you instead slap the victim to compel them to remove their clothing and then commit a lewd touching, you have used force separate from the touching itself, allowing the prosecution to charge you with the far more devastating Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b)(1).

The presence of that extra layer of physical power, violence, or psychological dread changes everything, elevating a severe felony into an absolute lifetime catastrophe. A conviction under a non-forcible, "regular" Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) charge ordinarily designates you as a Tier 2 offender under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(2)(A), unless another tier-three ground under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3) applies, exposing you to a minimum twenty-year registration period before you can file a petition for removal. If the prosecution successfully proves that you used force, fear, duress, or menace to accomplish the act, you are thrust into Tier 3 under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(C)(ix). (See Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(C)(ix) lists Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(b) and 288(c). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(A) covers a subsequent violent felony after a registerable conviction).

A conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b)(1) triggers mandatory, lifetime sex offender registration. You are locked into the public registry for the rest of your natural life, and Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5 provides no petition for removal based on this conviction. Pursuant to the law, the District Attorney can establish this scenario through several distinct psychological levers. You accomplish a lewd act by fear if the child is actually and reasonably afraid, or if the child is unreasonably afraid and you actively recognize and exploit that fear. California law defines “duress as used in the context of section 288 to mean a direct or implied threat of force, violence, danger, hardship or retribution sufficient to coerce a reasonable person of ordinary susceptibilities to (1) perform an act which otherwise would not have been performed or, (2) acquiesce in an act to which one otherwise would not have submitted."

People v. Pitmon (1985) 170 Cal.App.3d 38, 50.

Threatening to inflict physical harm, physically pinning down a victim who attempts to resist, or warning a child of severe consequences to their family if they disclose the act can each support a finding of force or duress when the conduct coerces the child’s participation in the act.

To decide whether you used duress, a jury is instructed to weigh the totality of the circumstances, including the child’s age, their familial or authority relationship to you, the physical size disparity between you and the child, and the isolated location of the conduct.

The law defines menace as a threat, statement, or act demonstrating an intent to injure another person. For instance, if a stepfather tells an eleven-year-old stepdaughter that he will physically hurt her younger brother unless she complies with a sexual act, he has committed a lewd act by menace and has done so regardless of whether he ever actually intended to carry out the threat.

You must also know that the state explicitly mirrors these exact, unyielding consequences under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b)(2). If you are a caretaker and commit a lewd act described in subdivision (a) upon a dependent person through force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury, you face the exact same penalties: five, eight, or ten years in state prison, a fine of up to ten thousand dollars, and permanent, non-expungable Tier 3 lifetime sex offender registration.

Beyond the lifetime registry, a forcible conviction under either Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(b)(1) or 288(b)(2) completely completely strips the judge of any legal authority to grant you probation, forcing a mandatory prison term and a permanent violent felony strike on your record. (See Cal. Pen. Code § 1203.066(a)(1), which bars probation for force. Cal. Pen. Code § 667.5(c)(6) lists Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(a) and 288(b) as violent felonies.) In other words, if you’re accused of this crime, your freedom hinges on whether the prosecution can prove that distinct, heightened threshold of coercion.

CHILD OF FOURTEEN OR FIFTEEN YEARS WHERE YOU ARE AT LEAST TEN YEARS OLDER

Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c)(1) applies to a lewd act described in subdivision (a) if the victim is fourteen or fifteen years old and you are at least ten years older than the victim, measured from each person’s birth date. This offense is a wobbler, meaning the prosecution can charge it, and a judge can sentence it, as either a felony or a misdemeanor. On a felony, a judge can sentence you to one, two, or three years in state prison and fine you up to ten thousand dollars. On a misdemeanor, a judge can sentence you to up to one year in county jail and fine you up to one thousand dollars. Either way, Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(C)(ix) lists a conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c) among the tier three offenses, so you must register as a sex offender for life.

Prosecutors cannot charge you under Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(a) or 288(c)(1) if the minor was sixteen or seventeen years old, although Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(b)(2) and 288(c)(2) reach a caretaker’s lewd act on a dependent person of any age. (See Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) (“under the age of 14 years”); Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c)(1) reads “a child of 14 or 15 years.” Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(b)(2) and 288(c)(2) each read “a caretaker and commits an act described in subdivision (a) upon a dependent person.”)

They instead charge conduct against a minor of this age under Cal. Pen. Code § 261.5(a), the statute defining unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor by a person other than the minor’s spouse, or Cal. Pen. Code § 243.4, the statute defining sexual battery.

BODILY HARM INFLICTED UPON A VICTIM UNDER FOURTEEN

If you personally inflict bodily harm on a victim under fourteen during a lewd act, the prosecution can charge you with violations of several separate provisions, subject to statutory limits on using the same circumstance twice. If you personally inflict bodily harm on a victim under fourteen during a lewd act, the prosecution can charge several separate provisions, subject to statutory limits on using the same circumstance twice. Cal. Pen. Code § 288(i)(1), the provision that increases the punishment for a non-forcible lewd act when the defendant physically injures the child, imposes a sentence of life in state prison with the possibility of parole on a conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) if you personally inflicted bodily harm upon the victim. Cal. Pen. Code § 288(i)(2), the provision limiting when that life sentence applies, requires the prosecution to plead and prove the bodily harm. Cal. Pen. Code § 288(i)(3) defines bodily harm as any substantial physical injury resulting from force greater than the force necessary to commit the offense.

California’s One Strike law imposes lengthy indeterminate terms for specified sex offenses committed under aggravating circumstances. Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(c)(8), the One Strike provision listing the non-forcible lewd act as a qualifying offense, lists Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(c)(4), the One Strike provision listing the forcible lewd act as a qualifying offense, lists Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b), the provision prohibiting a lewd act committed by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear or committed by a caretaker on a dependent person. Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(d)(7), the One Strike provision listing the child-injury circumstance, lists personal infliction of bodily harm on a victim under fourteen as a circumstance that triggers the One Strike sentence. If the prosecution pleads and proves that circumstance, Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(a), the provision setting the standard One Strike sentence, imposes twenty five years to life. Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(j)(1), the subsection which sets the enhanced One Strike sentence for offenses against children under fourteen, imposes life without the possibility of parole on an adult convicted under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b) of injuring a victim under fourteen, and it imposes twenty five years to life if the offender was under eighteen. That provision expressly excludes a conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a).

Cal. Pen. Code § 12022.8, the enhancement statute for great bodily injury inflicted during specified sex offenses, adds five years for each violation of listed offenses, including a lewd act under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b). Cal. Pen. Code § 12022.7(f)(1), the provision defining the injury that enhancement requires, defines great bodily injury as a significant or substantial physical injury. Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(f), the provision preventing the prosecution from using one aggravating circumstance twice, requires the court to use the minimum number of pleaded and proved circumstances to impose the One Strike term.

The court can use those circumstances for another punishment or enhancement only when another law provides a greater penalty or allows the added punishment. A life term under the One Strike law places you in tier three for life under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(C)(xvi), the registration provision assigning lifetime registration to any offense sentenced to a life term under Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61.

(See Cal. Pen. Code § 288(i)(1) (“life with the possibility of parole if the defendant personally inflicted bodily harm upon the victim”). Cal. Pen. Code §§ 667.61(a), 667.61(c)(4), 667.61(c)(8), 667.61(d)(7), 667.61(f), and 667.61(j)(1). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61(d)(7) reads “personally inflicted bodily harm on the victim who was under 14 years of age.” Cal. Pen. Code § 12022.8 indicates “five-year enhancement.” For tier three, see Cal. Pen. Code §§ 290(d)(3)(C)(xvi) and 290(d)(3)(G).)

HABITUAL SEX OFFENDERS

If you have at least one prior conviction for a qualifying sex crime and a judge or jury convicts you of a new qualifying offense, including a new offense under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a), lewd or lascivious act involving a child under the age of fourteen years committed with sexual intent, or Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b), lewd or lascivious act involving a child under the age of fourteen years committed by use of force, violence, duress, menace, or fear, and the prosecution pleads and proves your prior conviction, your sentence escalates as follows. Cal. Pen. Code § 667.71(b), the habitual sexual offender sentencing statute that mandates a lifetime prison term for repeat offenders, imposes twenty five years to life in state prison, which is triggered when a new qualifying offense occurs under Cal. Pen. Code § 667.71(c)(4), the specific statutory subsection that designates a lewd or lascivious act in violation of subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 288 as a qualifying offense for habitual sexual offender status.

MULTIPLE COUNTS, CONCURRENT AND CONSECUTIVE SENTENCING

If a jury convicts you of two or more counts of child molestation in a single case, the judge has the option to order you to serve the sentences concurrently, meaning at the same time. But alternatively, the judge can impose the maximum term on one count, add one-third of the middle term for each additional count, which is two years for a count under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a). See Cal. Pen. Code § 1170.1(a) (“one-third of the middle term of imprisonment”). The six-year middle term appears in Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a).

Moreover, the judge can order you to serve the terms consecutively, one after another. With enough counts, a judge can stack consecutive terms into what amounts to a life sentence. For example, Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) specifies a sentencing range of three, six, or eight years. If a jury convicts you of two counts under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a), the judge can sentence you to as little as three years by ordering you to serve the minimum term on both counts concurrently, or as much as ten years by imposing the maximum term on the first count and adding two consecutive years for the second.

Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e), the provision listing the sex offenses to which Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6 applies, covers specified forms of rape under Cal. Pen. Code § 261 and former Cal. Pen. Code § 262, rape or sexual penetration in concert under Cal. Pen. Code § 264.1, specified forms of sodomy under Cal. Pen. Code § 286, a forcible lewd act under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b), continuous sexual abuse of a child under Cal. Pen. Code § 288.5, specified forms of oral copulation under Cal. Pen. Code § 287 or former Cal. Pen. Code § 288a, and specified forms of sexual penetration under Cal. Pen. Code § 289. Cal.

Pen. Code § 667.6(e) also covers assault with intent to commit a specified sexual offense under Cal. Pen. Code § 220, but only as a present offense under Cal. Pen. Code §§ 667.6(c) or 667.6(d), and covers an offense committed in another jurisdiction containing all the elements of an offense listed in Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e), but only as a prior conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(a), the statute imposing a five-year enhancement for each prior conviction of an offense listed in Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e), or Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(b), the statute imposing a ten-year enhancement for each prior prison term on a person who has served two or more prior prison terms for offenses listed in Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(5), the only paragraph of Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e) naming a subdivision of Cal. Pen. Code § 288, names only Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b), the provision prohibiting a lewd act committed by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear. If a jury convicts you of two or more counts under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b) involving the same victim on the same occasion, Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(c), the statute governing crimes against the same victim on the same occasion, permits the judge to impose a full, separate, and consecutive term for each Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b) conviction.

The judge may impose the full, separate, and consecutive term under Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(c) in place of the one-third-of-the-middle-term formula in Cal. Pen. Code § 1170.1(a), the statute setting the ordinary consecutive-sentencing formula. If a jury convicts you of two or more counts under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b) involving separate victims or the same victim on separate occasions, Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(d)(1), the statute addressing crimes against separate victims or against the same victim on separate occasions, requires the judge to impose a full, separate, and consecutive term for each Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b) conviction.

See Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(a) (“A person who is convicted of an offense specified in subdivision (e) and who has been convicted previously of any of those offenses shall receive a five-year enhancement for each of those prior convictions”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(b) (“A person who is convicted of an offense specified in subdivision (e) and who has served two or more prior prison terms as defined in Section 667.5 for any of those offenses shall receive a 10-year enhancement for each of those prior terms”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(c) (“In lieu of the term provided in Section 1170.1, a full, separate, and consecutive term may be imposed for each violation of an offense specified in subdivision (e) if the crimes involve the same victim on the same occasion”).

Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(d)(1) (“A full, separate, and consecutive term shall be imposed for each violation of an offense specified in subdivision (e) if the crimes involve separate victims or involve the same victim on separate occasions”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e) (“This section shall apply to the following offenses”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(1) (“Rape, in violation of paragraph (2), (3), (6), or (7) of subdivision (a) of Section 261”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(2) (“Rape, in violation of paragraph (1), (4), or (5) of subdivision (a) of former Section 262”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(3) (“Rape or sexual penetration, in concert, in violation of Section 264.1”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(4) (“Sodomy, in violation of paragraph (2) or (3) of subdivision (c), or subdivision (d) or (k), of Section 286”).

Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(5) (“Lewd or lascivious act, in violation of subdivision (b) of Section 288”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(6) (“Continuous sexual abuse of a child, in violation of Section 288.5”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(7) (“Oral copulation, in violation of paragraph (2) or (3) of subdivision (c), or subdivision (d) or (k) of Section 287 or of former Section 288a”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(8) (“Sexual penetration, in violation of subdivision (a) or (g) of Section 289”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(9) (“As a present offense under subdivision (c) or (d), assault with intent to commit a specified sexual offense, in violation of Section 220”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.6(e)(10) (“As a prior conviction under subdivision (a) or (b), an offense committed in another jurisdiction that includes all of the elements of an offense specified in this subdivision”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1170.1(a) (“The subordinate term for each consecutive offense shall consist of one-third of the middle term of imprisonment prescribed for each other felony conviction for which a consecutive term of imprisonment is imposed”)).

THE THREE STRIKES LAW

Cal. Pen. Code § 1192.7(c)(6), the statute listing California’s serious felonies, includes a lewd or lascivious act on a child under fourteen, and Cal. Pen. Code § 667.5(c)(6), the statute listing California’s violent felonies, includes a lewd or lascivious act defined in Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) or (b). A conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) or (b) is therefore a strike under Cal. Pen. Code § 667(b) through (i), California’s Three Strikes law, while a conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c) appears in neither list. You carry the strike on your criminal record for life. If the prosecution pleads and proves it when you are sentenced for a future felony, the judge must impose a harsher penalty unless the judge dismisses the strike under the limited discretion recognized in People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497. If you have one prior strike and a jury convicts you of a new felony, you face double the usual term. If you have two prior strikes and a jury convicts you of a third felony that is serious or violent, you face a minimum of twenty five years to life in state prison. Under Cal. Pen. Code § 667(e)(2)(C)(iv)(III), the same sentence applies to a third felony that is neither serious nor violent if one of your prior strikes is a lewd act on a child under fourteen in violation of Cal. Pen. Code § 288.

COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCES

If a judge or jury convicts you under Cal. Pen. Code § 288, you face consequences reaching far beyond prison and fines, and you may live with many of them for decades after you finish your sentence. You may owe restitution to cover the cost of the victim’s medical or psychological treatment. You must register as a California sex offender under Cal. Pen. Code § 290 and keep registering at each new address. A judge may issue a criminal protective order against you. If a court later convicts you of a new felony after a conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) (or under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b), the provision prohibiting a lewd act committed by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear) the prosecution can seek a longer sentence for the new felony by treating the earlier Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(a) or 288(b) conviction as a strike under Cal. Pen. Code § 667(e), the statute setting longer sentences for a defendant who has one or more prior serious or violent felony convictions.

To obtain the longer sentence under Cal. Pen. Code § 667(e), the prosecution must plead and prove the earlier Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(a) or 288(b) conviction, as Cal. Pen. Code § 667(f)(1), the provision requiring the prosecuting attorney to plead and prove each prior serious or violent felony conviction, requires. (See Cal. Pen. Code § 667(e)(1) (“If a defendant has one prior serious or violent felony conviction as defined in subdivision (d) that has been pled and proved, the determinate term or minimum term for an indeterminate term shall be twice the term otherwise provided as punishment for the current felony conviction”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667(f)(1) (“The prosecuting attorney shall plead and prove each prior serious or violent felony conviction except as provided in paragraph (2)”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1192.7(c)(6) (“lewd or lascivious act on a child under 14 years of age”). Cal. Pen. Code § 667.5(c)(6) (“Lewd or lascivious act as defined in subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 288”)).

A conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) or Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b) is always a felony. A conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c), the statute prohibiting a lewd act on a child of fourteen or fifteen by a person at least ten years older and a lewd act by a caretaker on a dependent person, is punishable either by imprisonment in state prison or by imprisonment in county jail for up to one year, so a court can treat a conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c) as a misdemeanor under the circumstances listed in Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b), the provision governing when a crime punishable as either a felony or a misdemeanor becomes a misdemeanor for all purposes. After a felony conviction under Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(a), 288(b), or 288(c), Cal. Pen. Code § 29800(a)(1), California’s felon in possession statute, prohibits you from owning, purchasing, receiving, or possessing any firearm, or having any firearm under your custody or control, and 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), the parallel federal felon in possession provision, prohibits you from possessing any firearm or ammunition in or affecting commerce and from receiving any firearm or ammunition shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.

(See Cal. Pen. Code § 17(a) (“A felony is a crime that is punishable with death, by imprisonment in the state prison”). Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(c)(1) and 288(c)(2) (“shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for one, two, or three years, or by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year”). Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b) (“When a crime is punishable, in the discretion of the court, either by imprisonment in the state prison or imprisonment in a county jail under the provisions of subdivision (h) of Section 1170, or by fine or imprisonment in the county jail, it is a misdemeanor for all purposes under the following circumstances”). Cal. Pen. Code § 29800(a)(1) (“Any person who has been convicted of a felony under the laws of the United States, the State of California, or any other state, government, or country . . . and who owns, purchases, receives, or has in possession or under custody or control any firearm is guilty of a felony”). 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (“who has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year”). 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) (“to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce”)).

SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION UNDER CAL. PEN. CODE § 290

If a judge or jury convicts you of a lewd act with a minor, you must register as a California sex offender under Cal. Pen. Code § 290, and you keep registering long after any prison term ends. After a second or subsequent conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) in a separately brought and tried proceeding, you must register as a Tier III offender for life. If a jury convicts you even once under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b), the force or fear subdivision, or under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c), you likewise must register as a Tier III offender for life.

After a first conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a), you ordinarily must register as a Tier 2 offender for a minimum of twenty years under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(2)(A) (the provision placing a person convicted of a serious felony listed in Cal. Pen. Code § 1192.7(c) or a violent felony listed in Cal. Pen. Code § 667.5(c) in tier two). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(2)(B), the provision subordinating tier two to tier three, removes you from tier two if any ground for lifetime registration under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3), the statute listing the grounds for tier three lifetime registration, applies to you. Those grounds include a later conviction in a separate proceeding of a violent felony listed in Cal. Pen. Code § 667.5(c) after a registerable conviction, a commitment as a sexually violent predator, a well-above-average risk level on the static SARATSO risk assessment instrument at the time of release on the index sex offense, habitual sex offender status under Cal. Pen. Code § 667.71, and a life sentence under Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61, California’s One Strike law. Under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(e), the provision setting when the minimum registration period begins and when the period is tolled, your twenty years start upon the date of your release from incarceration, placement, or commitment, and the twenty years stop running during any later incarceration, placement, or commitment.

Cal. Pen. Code § 17(e), the provision preserving the sex offender registration duty after a wobbler reduction, provides that Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b), the statute permitting a judge to treat a crime punishable as either a felony or a misdemeanor as a misdemeanor for all purposes, does not in and of itself authorize a judge to relieve you of the duty to register as a sex offender under Cal. Pen. Code § 290 if the prosecution has charged you with an offense requiring registration under Cal. Pen. Code § 290 and the trier of fact has found you guilty of the charged offense. Cal. Pen. Code § 290(c)(1), the provision listing the convictions requiring registration, lists a conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288, so a judge who reduces a conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c), the statute prohibiting a lewd act on a child of fourteen or fifteen by a person at least ten years older and a lewd act by a caretaker on a dependent person, to a misdemeanor under Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b) cannot use the reduction to excuse you from registration.

A judge sentencing you on any Cal. Pen. Code § 288 conviction therefore lacks the authority to excuse you from registration. Before any conviction, our Cal. Pen. Code § 288 charges dismissal attorneys can work to secure a total dismissal of charges or if that is not possible negotiate a plea to a lesser offense outside Cal. Pen. Code § 290(c)(1), such as simple battery under Cal. Pen. Code § 242, the statute defining battery as any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon another person. Once prosecutors have charged you under Cal. Pen. Code § 288, a dismissal, an acquittal, or a negotiated plea of this kind avoids the mandatory registration a Cal. Pen. Code § 288 conviction carries. Cal. Pen. Code § 290.006(a), the discretionary registration statute, still permits a judge to order registration for an offense outside Cal. Pen. Code § 290(c)(1) if the judge finds at the time of conviction or sentencing you committed the offense as a result of sexual compulsion or for purposes of sexual gratification, and states the reasons on the record. Under Cal. Pen. Code § 290.006(b), the provision setting the default tier for discretionary registration, a person ordered to register under Cal. Pen. Code § 290.006(a) registers as a tier one offender unless the judge finds tier two or tier three appropriate under the factors listed in Cal. Pen. Code § 290.006(c), the provision listing those factors, and states the reasons on the record.

A Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b) reduction still carries a decisive registration benefit for a registrant whose tier three placement is predicated on the felony classification of a wobbler. Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(J), the provision placing a felony sexual battery conviction in tier three, covers a felony conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 243.4(a), the statute prohibiting touching an intimate part of an unlawfully restrained person against the person’s will for sexual arousal, gratification, or abuse, and under Cal. Pen. Code §§ 243.4(c) or 243.4(d). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(R), the provision placing felony child pornography convictions in tier three, covers a felony conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 311.1(a), the statute prohibiting sending, bringing into the state, or distributing obscene matter depicting a person under eighteen, and under Cal. Pen. Code § 311.11(a)(1), the provision prohibiting knowing possession or control of matter depicting a person under eighteen engaging in or simulating sexual conduct. Each of those offenses is punishable either by imprisonment in state prison or by imprisonment in county jail for up to one year, so each is a wobbler subject to Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b).

If the judge sentenced you to county jail or probation rather than state prison for one of those offenses, our attorneys can move to reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor under Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b)(1), the provision making a wobbler a misdemeanor after a judgment imposing a punishment other than state prison or county jail under Cal. Pen. Code § 1170(h), or under Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b)(3), the provision permitting the judge to declare a wobbler a misdemeanor when granting probation or on a later application. Once the judge grants the reduction, the conviction is a misdemeanor for all purposes from the date of the reduction forward, as the California Supreme Court reasoned in People v. Feyrer (2010) 48 Cal.4th 426 and People v. Park (2013) 56 Cal.4th 782, where the court held a wobbler reduced to a misdemeanor under Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b)(3) is no longer a prior serious felony conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 667(a). Cal. Pen. Code §§ 290(d)(3)(J) and 290(d)(3)(R) reach only a felony conviction, so the reduction removes the conviction from tier three, and Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(1)(A), the provision placing a misdemeanor conviction of a Cal. Pen. Code § 290(c) offense in tier one, places you in tier one with a minimum registration period of ten years, unless a tier three ground unrelated to the offense classification, such as a well-above-average SARATSO risk level under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(D), applies to you. The court order alone changes no registry record.

The California Department of Justice, which Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(5), the provision authorizing the Department of Justice to place a registrant in a tier-to-be-determined category and requiring the Department to ascertain the registrant’s appropriate tier designation, charges with ascertaining tier designations, issues the written tier designation reflecting tier one, and in our experience the Department does so after our attorneys submit proof a California Superior Court in fact granted the motion under Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b)(3) reducing the registerable felony conviction to a misdemeanor. Our tier level designation reduction attorneys prepare and submit that proof as part of the reduction strategy. After ten years of registration under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(e), the provision setting when the minimum registration period begins and when the period is tolled, a tier one registrant may petition for termination under Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(1), the statute permitting a tier one or tier two registrant to petition for termination after the mandated minimum registration period. Our attorneys have used this sequence to move registrants from tier three to tier one and then to termination. A Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b) reduction offers no comparable benefit for a Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c) conviction, because Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(C)(ix), the provision listing convictions under Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(b) or 288(c) as tier three offenses, lists Cal. Pen. Code § 288(c) by subdivision without regard to whether the conviction is a felony or a misdemeanor.”

See Cal. Pen. Code § 17(e) (“This section does not authorize a judge to relieve a defendant of the duty to register as a sex offender pursuant to Section 290 if the defendant is charged with an offense for which registration as a sex offender is required pursuant to Section 290, and for which the trier of fact has found the defendant guilty”). Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b) (“When a crime is punishable, in the discretion of the court, either by imprisonment in the state prison or imprisonment in a county jail under the provisions of subdivision (h) of Section 1170, or by fine or imprisonment in the county jail, it is a misdemeanor for all purposes under the following circumstances”). Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b)(1) (“After a judgment imposing a punishment other than imprisonment in the state prison or imprisonment in a county jail under the provisions of subdivision (h) of Section 1170”). Cal. Pen. Code § 17(b)(3) (“When the court grants probation to a defendant and at the time of granting probation, or on application of the defendant or probation officer thereafter, the court declares the offense to be a misdemeanor”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(c)(1) lists “Section 243.4,” “288,” “311.1,” and “311.11” among the offenses requiring registration and omits Cal. Pen. Code § 242. Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(1)(A) (“A tier one offender is subject to registration for a minimum of 10 years.

A person is a tier one offender if the person is required to register for conviction of a misdemeanor described in subdivision (c), or for conviction of a felony described in subdivision (c) that was not a serious or violent felony as described in subdivision (c) of Section 667.5 or subdivision (c) of Section 1192.7”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3) (“A tier three offender is subject to registration for life. A person is a tier three offender if any one of the following applies”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(J) (“The person was convicted of a felony offense described in subdivision (a), (c), or (d) of Section 243.4”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(R) (“The person was convicted of a felony violation of Section 311.1 or 311.11 or of violating subdivision (b), (c), or (d) of Section 311.2, Section 311.3, 311.4, or 311.10”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(D) (“The person’s risk level on the static risk assessment instrument for sex offenders (SARATSO), pursuant to Section 290.04, is well above average risk at the time of release on the index sex offense into the community, as defined in the Coding Rules for that instrument”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(C)(ix) (“Subdivision (b) or (c) of Section 288”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(5)(A) (“The Department of Justice may place a person described in subdivision (c), or who is otherwise required to register pursuant to the Act, in a tier-to-be-determined category if the appropriate tier designation described in this subdivision cannot be immediately ascertained”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(5)(B) (“The Department of Justice shall ascertain an individual’s appropriate tier designation as described in this subdivision within 24 months of the individual’s placement in the tier-to-be-determined category”).

Cal. Pen. Code § 243.4(a) (“punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, and by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000); or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years”). Cal. Pen. Code § 311.1(a) (“shall be punished either by imprisonment in the county jail for up to one year, by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment in the state prison”). Cal. Pen. Code § 311.11(a)(1) (“shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison, or a county jail for up to one year, or by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), or by both the fine and imprisonment”). People v. Feyrer (2010) 48 Cal.4th 426 (“If ultimately a misdemeanor sentence is imposed, the offense is a misdemeanor from that point on, but not retroactively”). People v. Park (2013) 56 Cal.4th 782 (“When the court properly has exercised its discretion to reduce a wobbler to a misdemeanor under the procedures set forth in section 17(b), the statute generally has been construed in accordance with its plain language to mean that the offense is a misdemeanor ‘for all purposes’” and “we conclude that when a wobbler has been reduced to a misdemeanor the prior conviction does not constitute a prior felony conviction within the meaning of section 667(a)”).

Cal. Pen. Code § 290(e) (“The minimum time period for the completion of the required registration period in tier one or two commences on the date of release from incarceration, placement, or commitment, including any related civil commitment on the registerable offense”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(1) (“A person who is required to register pursuant to Section 290 and who is a tier one or tier two offender may file a petition in the superior court in the county in which the person is registered for termination from the sex offender registry on or after their next birthday after July 1, 2021, following the expiration of the person’s mandated minimum registration period”). Cal. Pen. Code §§ 288(c)(1) and 288(c)(2) (“shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for one, two, or three years, or by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year”). Cal. Pen. Code § 242 (“A battery is any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another”).

Cal. Pen. Code § 290.006(a) (“Any person ordered by any court to register pursuant to the act, who is not required to register pursuant to Section 290, shall so register, if the court finds at the time of conviction or sentencing that the person committed the offense as a result of sexual compulsion or for purposes of sexual gratification. The court shall state on the record the reasons for its findings and the reasons for requiring registration”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290.006(b) (“The person shall register as a tier one offender in accordance with paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) of Section 290, unless the court finds the person should register as a tier two or tier three offender and states on the record the reasons for its finding”). Cal. Pen. Code § 290.006(c) (“In determining whether to require the person to register as a tier two or tier three offender, the court shall consider all of the following”).

REGISTRY TERMINATION FOR A PRIOR CONVICTION UNDER CAL. PEN. CODE § 290.5

If you are living under the burden of a Cal. Pen. Code § 288 conviction, removing your name from the sex offender registry requires a precise legal strategy tailored to your exact case history. California uses a three-tiered system to decide how long a person must register. Under Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5, people in tier one or tier two can ask a judge to remove them from the list after completing their mandatory ten- or twenty-year waiting periods.

The confusion starts with tier three, which the law splits into two different groups. The first group includes people pushed into tier three purely because of a high risk-assessment score on a state test; Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(b)(3) gives these individuals a safety valve to ask for removal after twenty years. The second group includes people whose specific criminal charge automatically locks them into tier three for life by operation of law. A § 288(a) conviction ordinarily falls within tier two unless another tier-three criterion applies; convictions under § 288(b) or (c) fall within tier three under § 290(d)(3)(C)(ix).

When the statutory tier system offers no exit, looking beyond basic administrative petitions becomes your only path to relief. Our post-conviction attorneys at Second Chances Law Group can indirectly attack your registration obligation by targeting the conviction itself.

If you remain in actual or constructive custody on the Cal. Pen. Code § 288 conviction, meaning you are still in prison, on parole, or on probation for the Cal. Pen. Code § 288 conviction, our PC 290 registration termination attorneys can petition for a writ of habeas corpus under Cal. Pen. Code § 1473(a), the statute permitting a person unlawfully imprisoned or restrained of liberty to challenge the imprisonment or restraint, to vacate the underlying judgment on a cognizable legal ground, including the grounds listed in Cal. Pen. Code § 1473(b)(1), the provision listing false evidence, false physical evidence underlying a guilty plea, new evidence, and a significant dispute over expert testimony as grounds for habeas corpus relief.

The registration duty alone falls short of the custody requirement for habeas corpus, as In re Stier (2007) 152 Cal.App.4th 63 held and as the California Supreme Court confirmed in People v. Picklesimer (2010) 48 Cal.4th 330. If you are no longer in criminal custody on the Cal. Pen. Code § 288 conviction, Cal. Pen. Code § 1473.7(a), the statute permitting a person no longer in criminal custody to move to vacate a conviction or sentence, permits a motion to vacate on three grounds: prejudicial error damaging your ability to understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the immigration consequences of the conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 1473.7(a)(1), newly discovered evidence of actual innocence under Cal. Pen. Code § 1473.7(a)(2), and a conviction or sentence sought, obtained, or imposed on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin in violation of Cal. Pen. Code § 745(a), California’s Racial Justice Act, under Cal. Pen. Code § 1473.7(a)(3)(A). Vacating the Cal. Pen. Code § 288 conviction removes a registration duty resting solely on the vacated conviction, subject to any retrial. This litigation deserves careful evaluation for anyone facing a permanent tier-three mandate, especially since other fallback options are limited;”

(See Cal. Pen. Code § 1473(a) (“A person unlawfully imprisoned or restrained of their liberty, under any pretense, may prosecute a writ of habeas corpus to inquire into the cause of the imprisonment or restraint”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1473(b)(1) (“A writ of habeas corpus may be prosecuted for, but not limited to, the following reasons”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1473(b)(1)(A) (“False evidence that is material on the issue of guilt or punishment was introduced against a person at a hearing or trial”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1473(b)(1)(B) (“False physical evidence, believed by a person to be factual, probative, or material on the issue of guilt, which was known by the person at the time of entering a plea of guilty”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1473(b)(1)(C)(i) (“New evidence exists that is presented without substantial delay, is admissible, and is sufficiently material and credible that it more likely than not would have changed the outcome of the case”).

Cal. Pen. Code § 1473(b)(1)(D) (“A significant dispute has emerged or further developed in the petitioner’s favor regarding expert medical, scientific, or forensic testimony”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1473.7(a) (“A person who is no longer in criminal custody may file a motion to vacate a conviction or sentence for any of the following reasons”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1473.7(a)(1) (“prejudicial error damaging the moving party’s ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the actual or potential adverse immigration consequences of a conviction or sentence”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1473.7(a)(2) (“Newly discovered evidence of actual innocence exists that requires vacation of the conviction or sentence as a matter of law or in the interests of justice”). Cal. Pen. Code § 1473.7(a)(3)(A) (“A conviction or sentence was sought, obtained, or imposed on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin in violation of subdivision (a) of Section 745”). In re Stier (2007) 152 Cal.App.4th 63 (“the judgment granting respondent habeas corpus relief is in excess of the trial court’s authority in the absence of evidence he was in actual or constructive custody”). People v. Picklesimer(2010) 48 Cal.4th 330 (“a party no longer in constructive custody may not challenge his or her obligation to register as a sex offender by way of a petition for writ of habeas corpus”), citing In re Stierat pages 81 through 83.)

Reclaiming your life requires a sophisticated post-conviction strategy to audit your original trial records for constitutional flaws. The attorneys at Second Chances Law Group possess the specific know-how required to analyze your files, find viable grounds for a writ under Cal. Pen. Code § 1473, and execute a high-stakes courtroom strategy to secure your future.

Pursuant to Cal. Pen. Code §290(d)(2), a first conviction for a non-forcible lewd or lascivious act involving a child under 14 years of age under Section 288, subdivision (a) places the registrant squarely into Tier Two. This statutory designation carries a mandatory minimum registration period of twenty years before the registrant may petition for termination from the registry. However, this Tier Two timeline applies only if the underlying conviction excludes any force, violence, or bodily harm provisions that would otherwise trigger a mandatory Tier Three lifetime registration requirement under paragraph (3) of the same statute.

MANDATORY STATUTORY FRAMEWORK UNDER CAL. PEN. CODE § 290.5

Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(1) establishes the strict procedural avenue for registry relief. Once the twenty-year statutory timeline expires, Tier Two registrants hold the right to petition the superior court in their county of registration. The petitioner must serve a copy of the petition and formal proof of current registration on both the local registering law enforcement agency and the local district attorney. If an out-of-county court entered the underlying conviction, the petitioner must also serve the law enforcement agency and the district attorney in that county of conviction.

Upon filing, Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5 triggers a mandatory, time-sensitive review process. The local registering agency receives sixty days to submit an official compliance report directly to the court and the district attorney. This critical document is explicitly known as a California Sex and Arson Registration (CSAR) Report. The CSAR Report determines whether the petitioner satisfied the baseline registration requirements calculated under Cal. Pen. Code § 290(e), which governs the tracking, tolling, and extension of minimum registration terms.

Following the filing of this mandatory CSAR Report, Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(2) dictates the judicial mandate for uncontested petitions. The court must grant the petition without a hearing if the district attorney raises no formal objection, provided the petitioner submitted formal proof of current registration, the CSAR Report confirms total fulfillment of the minimum tier period, no pending criminal charges exist that could extend the tier period, the petitioner is free from incarceration, parole, probation, or supervised release, and the district attorney declines to enter a formal opposition.

If the district attorney executes a timely request for a hearing to oppose the petition, the proceeding shifts from a mandatory administrative grant to a contested evidentiary hearing. A distinct set of statutory criteria and appellate rules then governs the court's multi-factor risk assessment under Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(3).

CONTESTED EVIDENTIARY HEARINGS, PRACTICAL LITIGATION BARRIERS, AND THE EXCLUSIVE ADVANTAGE OF SECOND CHANCES LAW GROUP, APC UNDER CAL. PEN. CODE § 290.5

Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(3) permits the district attorney to request a formal evidentiary hearing to oppose a petition for registry termination. To sustain this opposition, the prosecution carries the absolute burden of proof to demonstrate that continued registration significantly enhances community safety. The statute strictly mandates that the court must independently evaluate and weigh specific evidentiary factors before ruling on the objection.

First, the court must analyze the nature and circumstances of the underlying registerable offense. Second, the judge must review the age and number of victims involved in the original conviction. Third, the evaluation requires a determination of whether the petitioner and the victim were strangers at the time of the offense. Fourth, the court must track the petitioner's complete criminal and relevant noncriminal behavior spanning the entire timeline before and after the conviction. Fifth, the statutory calculus demands a precise accounting of the continuous duration during which the petitioner has lived completely free from reoffense. Sixth, the judge must consider the completion, if any, of a California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) certified sex offender treatment program. Seventh, the court must measure the petitioner's current risk of sexual or violent reoffense, utilizing available risk levels from the State Authorized Risk Assessment Tools for Sex Offenders (SARATSO) static, dynamic, and violence risk assessment instruments.

To litigate these factors, both the petitioner and the prosecution possess the right to submit declarations, affidavits, police reports, and any other reliable, material, and relevant evidence. The prosecution's evidence must directly satisfy the burden of proof, establishing a current, nexus-driven showing that removing the petitioner from the registry creates a real risk to public safety.

Unrepresented petitioners routinely fail in this arena because they cannot bridge the gap between satisfying the administrative metrics of Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(2) and surviving the contested evidentiary criteria of Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(3). While a petitioner might check every technical box under paragraph (2), i.e., submitting proof of current registration and showing a clean probation record, the administrative review halts the moment the district attorney lodges an objection. Once the prosecution objects, the battleground shifts entirely to the seven complex factors of paragraph (3). Superior courts often or frequently deny contested petitions filed by individuals attempting to represent themselves or hiring “jack of all trades, master of none” or non-sex/crimes-focused “criminal defense lawyers because such types lack the litigation skills required to execute critical courtroom maneuvers.

First, lay petitioners or defense law types allow the district attorney to fixate entirely on the historical details of the ancient offense, failing to leverage the binding rule of People v. Franco (2024) 99 Cal.App.5th 184 to force the judge's focus onto decades of post-conviction behavior. Second, unrepresented individuals do not know how to leverage the relevant statutory and case law to challenge offense-fixated oppositions or object to mischaracterizations of the petitioner that lack a clinical or actuarial foundation under the SARATSO guidelines. Third, self- or poorly-represented petitioners mistakenly treat the hearing as an administrative formality, which allows the prosecution to quietly bypass its absolute burden of proving that continued sex offender registration significantly enhances community safety.

This procedural trap defines the exact real-world barrier that defeats unrepresented individuals. Generic criminal defense lawyers also represent a profoundly poor fit for this highly specialized class of post-conviction litigation. Even specialized criminal defense attorneys frequently remain completely ill-equipped to secure a registry termination order. Traditional criminal defense practices operate almost exclusively in a reactive, defensive posture, focusing their energies on resisting or mitigating pending state charges. These practitioners divide their finite time and attention between contesting active indictments and executing occasional, disconnected affirmative filings. This constant shifting between a reactive defense and an infrequent offense fundamentally undermines their effectiveness in the courtroom. They lack the institutional momentum required to sustain a high-velocity, proactive assault against the state's infrastructure.

SECOND CHANCES LAW GROUP, APC establishes an unyielding offensive advantage through an intense, practice-wide focus centered exclusively on affirmative post-conviction work specifically on behalf of and for California registered sex offenders. This absolute concentration of resources and legal capital transforms the entire dynamic of the litigation. It permanently establishes this firm in the offensive posture while forcing the government into a purely defensive position.

SECOND CHANCES LAW GROUP, APC handles from start to finish the process of removing California registered sex offenders from inception to absolute conclusion. Rather than to deign to engage in defensive stalling tactics, Second Chances PC 290 Registration Termination Attorneys deploy a highly specialized, systematic offensive framework that intercepts the state's objections, enforces the controlling precedent of People v. Franco, and builds the precise evidentiary record necessary to secure a total termination order.

In People v. Thai (2023) 90 Cal.App.5th 427, the Fourth District Court of Appeal held the district attorney must prove, through reliable and credible evidence, continued registration would appreciably increase community safety. The trial judge in Thai had denied the petition of a sixty four year old tier two registrant who had stayed free of reoffense for twenty four years since his conviction. The prosecutor based the objection almost entirely on the egregious nature of a 1997 offense against a twelve year old victim and offered no evidence of any current risk. The Court of Appeal reversed. The court reasoned the district attorney cannot meet the burden with the facts of the original offense alone, however troubling, since the statute requires the judge to look at present danger rather than pass judgment again on past conduct.

In People v. Franco (2024) 99 Cal.App.5th 184, the Second District Court of Appeal applied Thai to the way a trial judge weighs the factors and to a tier argument prosecutors sometimes raise. The trial judge in Franco denied the petition of a seventy four year old registrant with thirty seven years of law abiding conduct since his two convictions under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a). The judge gave controlling weight to the egregious nature of one incident and the young age of the victim, and gave no weight to the registrant’s uncontested rehabilitation evidence, including completed psychotherapy, a thirty four year marriage, military service, and church involvement. The Court of Appeal reversed and held a trial judge abuses discretion by giving controlling weight to the severity of the offense if the district attorney presents no evidence of a current likelihood of reoffense. The court explained Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(3) requires the judge to weigh all seven factors rather than treat any single factor as decisive.

The court also rejected the district attorney’s argument for placing the registrant in tier three on the theory a prosecutor charging one incident today could invoke a later enacted statute requiring automatic tier three placement. The court held your tier under Cal. Pen. Code §§ 290 and 290.5 is the tier for the offense of your actual conviction, rather than for an offense a prosecutor might have charged under a statute the Legislature enacted after your offense.

Under Thai and Franco, the district attorney has to prove you pose a present risk, and a prosecutor cannot win the objection by arguing again about how serious your original offense was. Before we file your petition to terminate your duty to register as a sex offender, our registry termination attorneys gather and organize the evidence on each of the seven statutory factors to defeat the prosecution’s objection and move the judge in your favor. We place particular weight on the years you have lived free of reoffense, any Sex Offender Management Board certified treatment you have completed, and any available SARATSO risk assessment result. If the district attorney tries the tier argument rejected in Franco, we direct the judge to the tier Cal. Pen. Code § 290 specifies for your actual offense of conviction under the law in force at the time of your conviction.

Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(b)(1) and (b)(2) establish a faster petition track for certain tier two registrants. The statute applies this track to no violent felony except a conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a). Under this track, you may petition after only ten years from your release from custody, rather than twenty, if the registerable offense involved no more than one victim between fourteen and seventeen years old, you were under twenty one at the time of the offense, the only violent felony the offense constitutes is Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a), and the offense is outside the human trafficking statute, Cal. Pen. Code § 236.1. You must also show you have sustained no new registerable conviction and no new violent felony conviction since your release, and you must have registered for ten years.

The judge weighs a similar but distinct set of factors, including whether the victim was a stranger, whether you took advantage of a position of trust, and whether you started the relationship to make the offense easier to commit.

If the judge denies your petition under the standard twenty year rule, the judge can make you wait between one and five years before you can even file a new petition, though the judge must explain the length of the wait on the record, as Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(a)(4) requires. If the judge denies your petition under the faster ten year track, Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(b)(2) requires you to wait at least one year before you file again. Whether the judge grants or denies your petition, the court notifies the Department of Justice, and a denial notice includes the date on which you may file again.

For most Cal. Pen. Code § 288 convictions, you have no way to terminate registration at all, since you fall in tier three, and you need to understand this before you spend any time or money on a petition. Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(C)(ix) lists any conviction under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b) or § 288(c) among the tier three offenses, regardless of your risk assessment or later conduct. Cal. Pen. Code § 290(d)(3)(F) includes a second Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) conviction in a separately brought and tried proceeding in tier three as well. Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5(b)(3) permits a narrow petition track for a registrant in tier three solely on the basis of risk level, but the same subdivision prohibits you from using this track if you register for a Cal. Pen. Code § 288 conviction, regardless of your current risk score.

If a jury convicted you under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(b)(1), § 288(b)(2), or § 288(c), or convicted you of a second Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) offense, you face lifetime registration with no petition available under Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5. If you fall in this group, our attorneys focus on managing the consequences of permanent registration rather than a termination petition unavailable under the statute.

DEFENSES

A minor is legally incapable of issuing consent to an unlawful sexual act under California law, so a minor’s supposed consent provides no defense to a charge under Cal. Pen. Code § 288. You still have several other defenses, and each one depends on the specific facts of the accusation, facts our investigators can either confirm or completely unravel.

If the prosecution’s case rests heavily on the child’s own account, particularly with no confession or physical corroboration, our attorneys challenge the child’s credibility directly. We subpoena the accuser’s school, counseling, and medical records, along with the accuser’s electronic communications and social media accounts. We interview the accuser’s family, friends, schoolmates, and online contacts, and we conduct a thorough background investigation of the accuser and any supporting witnesses. For instance, suppose your twelve year old stepdaughter reports you fondled her breasts, and the district attorney charges you under Cal. Pen. Code § 288. Our investigation uncovers text messages she sent friends before the alleged incident saying she hated you and had a plan to get you out of the house for good. We present those messages to the prosecutor, and the prosecutor dismisses the charge as a fabricated allegation. Without this kind of digging, you would never reach this outcome.

You may raise mistaken identification as a defense if a child suffered inappropriate contact but is genuinely confused about who was responsible. Confusion of this kind is especially likely if you were a stranger to the child, if the contact happened in a dark or unfamiliar place, if you belong to a different race than the child, or if the child was very young at the time. Our attorneys search for evidence undermining the reliability of the child’s identification.

The prosecution must prove willfulness, and our attorneys attack this element head on if the evidence shows an accidental contact. A jury may convict you only if you touched the child on purpose. We reconstruct the physical circumstances of the contact in granular detail: the position of each body, the duration of the touch, who else was present, and your reaction the instant it happened. Our goal is to show the jury you touched the child by accident during an innocent activity. For example, suppose you roughhouse with your nine year old niece in a living room full of relatives and your hand brushes her clothed vaginal area in the middle of a tickling match. We present the surrounding horseplay, the adult witnesses in the room, the momentary contact, and the absence of any repeated or lingering touch to prove you had no sexual purpose. Once the jury accepts this account, the jury must acquit you. The prosecution has to prove willfulness and sexual intent beyond a reasonable doubt, and a reasonable doubt on either one defeats the charge.

Our attorneys can also defend you on the ground of purpose: even if you touched a sexual organ, you did so for a reason unrelated to arousal or gratification and without the sexual intent the statute requires. For instance, your twelve year old nephew finishes swimming and removes his trunks to change, and you, noticing what appears to be a rash on his penis, hold it briefly between your fingers to examine the skin. You commit no violation of Cal. Pen. Code § 288. Neither you nor your nephew experienced any intended arousal or gratification from the examination.

You have a complete defense to a charge under Cal. Pen. Code § 288 if the victim falls outside the ages the statute covers, meaning a victim of fourteen or fifteen years less than ten years younger than you, or a victim older than fifteen years. The prosecution can still charge you with a related offense such as statutory rape or sexual battery even if you win on this defense.

You can raise a defense based on police or prosecutorial misconduct if officers or prosecutors violated your constitutional or statutory rights during the investigation, whether through an illegal search or seizure, a coerced confession, entrapment, or the use of false testimony or planted evidence. If our attorneys identify a violation of this kind, we move to exclude the resulting evidence, and if the judge grants our motion, the prosecution may have no case left to try.

To raise legal insanity as a defense under CALCRIM No. 3450, you must prove you either failed to understand the nature of your act at the time of the offense or failed to understand it was morally wrong. Juries rarely accept this defense in child sex cases, and our attorneys typically rely on expert testimony to show you lacked control over your actions.

Under CALCRIM Nos. 3426 and 3427, you may also raise intoxication as a defense by proving your intoxication prevented you from forming the intent to gratify sexual desire, an intent Cal. Pen. Code § 288 requires. Juries rarely accept intoxication as a defense in a child sex case, though jurors respond more favorably if someone intoxicated you without your knowledge or against your will than if you chose to drink or use drugs.

A California court will refuse to admit a polygraph result regardless of the outcome, so our attorneys use a private defense polygraph examination as a negotiating tool rather than as evidence. We retain an examiner whose credentials the district attorney’s office respects, often a former police or federal polygrapher. If you pass, we present the result to the prosecutor to argue for a dismissal or a reduced charge. If you fail, we discard the result and disclose it to no one.

With a favorable mental evaluation, our attorneys have another route to a negotiated resolution, particularly if you confessed or the prosecution holds overwhelming evidence against you. We arrange a mental evaluation under Cal. Pen. Code § 288.1 by a psychologist or psychiatrist who examines both the circumstances of the offense and your history. If the evaluator concludes you pose no danger to other children and present a low risk of reoffending, we use the evaluation to argue for probation in place of a prison sentence.

PROBATION AND SENTENCING ALTERNATIVES

If a jury convicts you under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) without force or fear, you remain eligible for probation, but the judge may grant probation only after making three findings: special and unusual circumstances justify it, probation serves the interest of justice, and releasing you into the community poses no danger to the community. A judge sentencing you under Cal. Pen. Code § 288(a) may impose no suspended sentence and no split sentence. You must serve any term of incarceration in state prison rather than county jail, and you may serve no portion of the term through house arrest or a work release program, even with electronic monitoring. If a jury convicts you of attempted child molestation under Cal. Pen. Code §§ 664 and 288(a), you remain eligible for probation.

STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS UNDER CAL. PEN. CODE § 801.1

Cal. Pen. Code § 801.1(a) mandates that the prosecution of specific felony sex offenses, including lewd or lascivious acts under Cal. Pen. Code § 288, must commence at any time prior to the victim’s fortieth birthday if the offense occurred when the victim was under eighteen years of age. Pursuant to Cal. Pen. Code § 801.1(b), this extended timeline applies strictly to crimes committed on or after January 1, 2015, or to offenses where the previous statute of limitations had not yet expired as of January 1, 2015. This statutory mechanism expands the historical filing window, ensuring prosecutors retain decades of authority to initiate criminal charges before the statutory bar falls.

The statutory landscape contains a critical, high-stakes nuance that completely transforms the nature of public exposure. While Cal. Pen. Code § 801.1 governs the baseline fortieth-birthday restriction for minor victims, Cal. Pen. Code § 799 permanently abolishes the statute of limitations for any violation of Cal. Pen. Code § 288 that involves "substantial sexual conduct" or is committed under specified aggravating circumstances. For these aggravated offenses, the State of California completely removes the chronological shield, empowering district attorneys to file felony charges at any point during an individual’s lifetime.

Furthermore, Cal. Pen. Code § 803(g) introduces a lookback exception allowing the state to file a criminal complaint within one year after DNA testing conclusively establishes a suspect's identity, completely overriding standard statutory deadlines. These intersecting statutory layers strip away any assumption of permanent safety, leaving individuals exposed to delayed criminal prosecution and emphasizing why Second Chances Law Group, APC deploys immediate, unyielding offensive litigation to defeat potential indictments before filing, or to aggressively secure a total dismissal of the case via motion practice after the state files formal charges.

CIVIL LAWSUITS

A victim of a lewd act may sue you for civil sex abuse regardless of whether the state ever charges or convicts you. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 340.1(a), the statute specifying the deadline for civil childhood sexual abuse claims, requires the victim to file suit by the later of two dates: within eight years of turning eighteen, or within three years of the date the victim discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, a link between the abuse and a psychological injury or illness arising after the victim reached adulthood. Cal. Evid. Code § 115, the statute defining the burden of proof in a civil action, requires the victim to prove a civil sex abuse claim only by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning the victim must show the claim is more likely true than false. This standard is far lower than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard the prosecution must meet in the criminal case, and you can lose in civil court long after your criminal case has ended.

RELATED OFFENSES AND CHARGING ALTERNATIVES

Prosecutors sometimes charge conduct related to a Cal. Pen. Code § 288 allegation under other statutes, either as alternative charges or as separate counts arising from the same incident. Cal. Pen. Code § 269 defines aggravated sexual assault of a child. Cal. Pen. Code § 647 prohibits annoying or molesting a child. Cal. Pen. Code § 288.4 prohibits arranging a meeting with a child for a lewd purpose. Cal. Pen. Code § 311 prohibits child pornography. Cal. Pen. Code § 288.3 prohibits contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sexual offense against the same minor. Cal. Pen. Code § 288.5 prohibits continuous sexual abuse of a child. Cal. Pen. Code § 207 defines kidnapping. Cal. Pen. Code § 287 prohibits oral copulation with a minor. Cal. Pen. Code § 288.7 prohibits sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child under ten years of age. Cal. Pen. Code § 243.4 defines sexual battery.

Prosecutors choose among these statutes, and decide whether to charge them in the alternative or in addition to a Cal. Pen. Code § 288 count, based on the specific facts of the incident, including the age of the victim, the nature of the conduct, and the presence or absence of force.

HOW SECOND CHANCES LAW GROUP APPROACHES YOUR CASE

Second Chances Law Group APC begins each Cal. Pen. Code § 288 matter with a comprehensive review of the government’s evidence, the applicable statutes, and the procedural posture of your case. Our attorneys start investigating in the first days after your arrest, while witnesses, messages, and records are still easy to find. If you face an active charge, we identify each viable defense on your specific facts, from the credibility of the accuser to the willfulness and intent the statute requires, and we investigate the accuser’s background, records, and communications to expose a fabricated or mistaken allegation. We also evaluate strategic tools outside a full trial defense, including a private polygraph examination and a psychological evaluation under Cal. Pen. Code § 288.1, if those tools can help you reach a negotiated resolution.

If you already have a Cal. Pen. Code § 288 conviction and want relief from its consequences, our attorneys evaluate each statutory form of relief still available to you. After most forms of post conviction relief, your registration duty remains in place. Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5, the registration termination statute, provides the primary way to end your duty to register once you have completed the minimum period for your tier.

Our attorneys verify the primary sources behind our legal analysis, checking current statutory text and controlling appellate authority against your specific facts and procedural history. A district attorney will quickly defeat a petition citing an outdated statute or misreading a holding.

CONCLUSION

If you face a charge under Cal. Pen. Code § 288, or carry a prior conviction under the same statute, you face consequences far beyond a prison term, including lifetime or twenty year sex offender registration, a firearm ban, immigration consequences, and civil liability capable of costing you your career, your home, and your family. To convict you, the prosecution must prove a willful touching, a sexual intent, and a victim under fourteen years, or one of the alternative age and relationship circumstances the statute separately defines. Your defenses, from mistaken identity to the absence of the required intent, depend heavily on the specific facts of your case.

Second Chances Law Group APC can represent you through each stage of this process, from the first police contact through any post-conviction relief your case supports. Contact us for a complimentary deep dive evaluation and a “battle-tested” assessment of your case.

PRIMARY STATUTORY AUTHORITIES

Cal. Pen. Code § 288. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=288.

Cal. Pen. Code § 288.1. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=288.1.

Cal. Pen. Code § 288.3. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=288.3.

Cal. Pen. Code § 288.4. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=288.4.

Cal. Pen. Code § 288.5. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=288.5.

Cal. Pen. Code § 288.7. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=288.7.

Cal. Pen. Code § 269. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=269.

Cal. Pen. Code § 287. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=287.

Cal. Pen. Code § 207. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=207.

Cal. Pen. Code § 243.4. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=243.4.

Cal. Pen. Code § 261.5. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=261.5.

Cal. Pen. Code § 290. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=290.

Cal. Pen. Code § 290.5. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=290.5.

Cal. Pen. Code § 17. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=17.

Cal. Pen. Code § 29800. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=29800.

Cal. Pen. Code § 664. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=664.

Cal. Pen. Code § 667(b)-(i). Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=667.

Cal. Pen. Code § 667.5. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=667.5.

Cal. Pen. Code § 667.61. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=667.61.

Cal. Pen. Code § 667.71. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=667.71.

Cal. Pen. Code § 1192.7. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=1192.7.

Cal. Pen. Code § 12022.8. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=12022.8.

Cal. Pen. Code § 801.1. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=801.1.

Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 340.1. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP&sectionNum=340.1.

Cal. Evid. Code § 115. Available at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EVID&sectionNum=115.

18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Available at https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922.

CALCRIM No. 1110.

CALCRIM No. 1111.

CALCRIM No. 3450.

CALCRIM No. 3426.

CALCRIM No. 3427.