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Cal. Penal Code § 196
Penal Code of California, section 196. Text as published by the California Legislature.
Our reading of the text below: Homicide is justifiable when committed by peace officers and those acting by their command, either in obedience to a court judgment or when the homicide results from a use of force that complies with Section 835a. This is Police Census’s own summary, not the Legislature’s wording.
- Location in the code
- CHAPTER 1. Homicide [187. - 199.]
- Path
- PART 1. OF CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS [25. - 680.4.] › TITLE 8. OF CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON [187. - 248.] › CHAPTER 1. Homicide [187. - 199.]
- History
- Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 170, Sec. 1. (AB 392) Effective January 1, 2020.
- Effective date
- 2020-01-01
- Source
- pubinfo_2025.zip (California Legislature bulk archive; a very large download)
The “Location in the code” line is not a description. California publishes no caption for a section. That line is the chapter or title the section is filed under, from the Legislature’s table of contents, and says nothing about what the section provides.
The effective date is not necessarily the operative date. A section can be effective on one date and operative on a later one; the history note above is the source’s own statement and is shown exactly as published. This pilot does not determine whether a section is in force on any given day.
Text
Homicide is justifiable when committed by peace officers and those acting by their command in their aid and assistance, under either of the following circumstances:
(a) In obedience to any judgment of a competent court.
(b) When the homicide results from a peace officer’s use of force that is in compliance with Section 835a.
Reproduced from the California Legislature’s published archive (pubinfo_2025.zip). This is a scoped pilot of Penal Code sections chosen for policing relevance, not a mirror of the code. All California sections.