Skip to main content
US Criminal Defense.org
Menu

California statute

Cal. Penal Code § 209.5

Current through 2025–2026 Regular Session (leginfo weekly dump, 2026-07-12)

Part of Chapter 3: Kidnapping, California Penal Code.

Full text of Cal. Penal Code § 209.5

Statutory text current through the 2025–2026 Regular Session (leginfo weekly dump, 2026-07-12). This publication reproduces the official statutory text; it is not the official statutes of the State of California.

Cal. Penal Code § 209.5Primary source, current through the 2025–2026 Regular Session (leginfo weekly dump, 2026-07-12)
(a) Any person who, during the commission of a carjacking and in order to facilitate the commission of the carjacking, kidnaps another person who is not a principal in the commission of the carjacking shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life with the possibility of parole. (b) This section shall only apply if the movement of the victim is beyond that merely incidental to the commission of the carjacking, the victim is moved a substantial distance from the vicinity of the carjacking, and the movement of the victim increases the risk of harm to the victim over and above that necessarily present in the crime of carjacking itself. (c) In all cases in which probation is granted, the court shall, except in unusual cases where the interests of justice would best be served by a lesser penalty, require as a condition of the probation that the person be confined in the county jail for 12 months. If the court grants probation without requiring the defendant to be confined in the county jail for 12 months, it shall specify its reason or reasons for imposing a lesser penalty.

Official sources

Legal terms used in this section

This reference is informational and is not legal advice.