California Penal Code

§ 132.5

PEN § 132.5 Effective Jan 1, 2016Title 7 · Part 1 · Ch. 6

Statute text

(a)The Legislature supports and affirms the constitutional right of every person to communicate on any subject. This section is intended to preserve the right of every accused person to a fair trial, the right of the people to due process of law, and the integrity of judicial proceedings. This section is not intended to prevent any person from disseminating any information or opinion. The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the disclosure for valuable consideration of information relating to crimes by prospective witnesses can cause the loss of credible evidence in criminal trials and threatens to erode the reliability of verdicts. The Legislature further finds and declares that the disclosure for valuable consideration of information relating to crimes by prospective witnesses creates an appearance of injustice that is destructive of public confidence.

(b)A person who is a witness to an event or occurrence that he or she knows is a crime or who has personal knowledge of facts that he or she knows or reasonably should know may require that person to be called as a witness in a criminal prosecution shall not accept or receive, directly or indirectly, any money or its equivalent in consideration for providing information obtained as a result of witnessing the event or occurrence or having personal knowledge of the facts.

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Legislative history

Amended (as amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 62, Sec. 223) by Stats. 2015, Ch. 303, Sec. 384. (AB 731) Effective January 1, 2016.