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Firearm Sentence Enhancements Not Subject To Prohibition Against Multiple Punishment

By Jeremy Price

Accoridng to California Penal Code section 654 (PC 654), an act that is made punishable in different ways by different provisions of the Penal Code may be punished under either provision but not both. The ban on multiple punishment applies not only when there is one act in the ordinary sense, but also when the crimes arise as the result of an indivisible course of conduct. California Penal Code section 12022.53 (PC 12022.53) provides substantial sentence enhancements for using a firearm in the commission of certain felonies. In this case, the trial court imposed three enhancements pursuant to PC 12022.53 based on a single shot fired at a single victim during the simultaneous commission of three qualifying offenses. The defendant argued - and the Court of Appeal agreed - that PC 654 required the trial court to stay all but one of the sentence enhancements...continue to full post

Full post as published by Criminal Appeal on July 31, 2007 (boomark / email).