I have found that a search warrant , once issued, is returnable within ten days, according to the California Penal Code (§1354). But what about an arrest warrant? I can’t find a section of the Penal Code specifying a time period within which an arrest warrant must be returned (after being executed).
Everywhere I’ve looked online says, flat out, that arrest warrants do not expire.
So good luck fleeing the country.
The OP evidently forgot to add the ‘Need answer fast!’ to his subject line …
Can you give me a California authority for this?
What about when the statute of limitations expires?
I imagine there’s no mechanism (too impractical) to expire warrants in that case, especially given that SoL is (I believe) and affirmative defense that must be raised at trial.
I imagine a case has arisen with the following basic facts: A warrant is issued in year 1. In year 5, the statute of limitations expires. In year 6, the warrant is executed. During the arrest, evidence of another crime is found. This evidence would not normally have been found due to Fourth Amendment protections, except in this case the arrest subjected the person to additional searching, searching that was lawful incident to the arrest.
The defendant moves to have the evidence excluded because the initial reason for the search was invalid.
I’d argue the hell out of it were I on the defense, but my intuition says that the ruling would be similar to other good faith exceptions to the Fourth.
Anyone know of such a case?
Arrest warrants expire when the conditions causing the warrant to be issued are remedied or expire.
If you have an arrest warrant for suspicion of a crime with a statute of limitations, the arrest warrant expires when the statute of limitations for that crime runs out. If its something you’re already found guilty of (no longer just suspected) the arrest warrant does not run out until you’re arrested - which you will be as soon as you turn yourself in to serve your sentence.
According to this form, the expiration date can vary. It depends on when the judge sets it. So you won’t know the expiration of the warrant unless you see it. And if you see it, you’re probably being arrested.
Also, the judge can re-issue the warrant if they fail to capture you before the date. According to that form, the date is the hearing date. If you fail to make the hearing, they can issue a bench warrant, which would be a new one with a new expiration date. So pretty much, even if they put a date on the warrant, they can keep issuing them if the choose until they get you.
Once again, have fun fleeing the country. I hear autumn is pretty in Winnipeg. (The winters are brutal, though.)
In Ohio, going on the run tolls the statute of limitations, and an arrest warrant is then good indefinitely. You can’t defeat the eventual operation of the criminal law by hiding. (If you weren’t hiding but the cops just failed to make a reasonable effort to go get you, the statute of limitations will typically run).
I think I need to clarify this. I am a paralegal doing research for an attorney–not a fugitive on the lam. I searched in vain in the Penal Code for a specific time limit on arrest warrants (such as I mentioned in the OP about search warrants). However, it looks as though the statute of limitations is my key to the matter. 
I’m in New York and I’ve issued warrants in this state. My understanding is that they’re open-ended. I’ve seen one used nine years after it was originally issued. If we don’t want a warrant to remain active, we specifically withdraw it.
When they catch you in Switzerland more than 3 decades later.
We might get instruction from last term’s Herring v. US, where the Supreme Court took on a related question:
The court ofund that in such circumstances, the exclusionary rule did not apply.
This is slightly different from your hypo, where the warrant goes stale because of the impossibility of prosecuting on the underlying offense due to a statute of limitations problem.
So… I got a fixit-ticket in California just about five years ago, for having no headlight on my bike. It was a $165 ticket, and I was unemployed and homeless at the time.
I have been pulled over once since then, foolish traffic move, but they declined to take me in because it was a silly warrant.
I have a headlight on my bike now. (and a place, and two jobs.) I would like to take care of it, but why lose a day’s pay if it’s expired? Would there be a SoL on this?
In some places, if you call the DA’s office with one like that, they’ll tell you how to plead guilty by mail and include payment with the paperwork.
Good luck!