Can a defendant be punished for multiple punishments under section 654 of the California Code of Criminal Procedure?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Ramirez, F062512 (Cal. App. 2013):
Section 654 has been interpreted to prohibit multiple punishments for a single act, as well as an indivisible course of conduct. (Neal v. State of California (1960) 55 Cal.2d 11, 19.) "Whether a course of conduct is divisible and therefore gives rise to more than one act within the meaning of section 654 depends on the intent and objective of the actor. If all of the offenses were incident to one objective, the defendant may be punished for any one of such offense but not for more than one." (Ibid.)
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On the other hand, if the evidence discloses that a defendant entertained multiple criminal objectives independent of and not merely incidental to each other, the trial court may impose punishment for independent violations committed in pursuit of each objective, even though the violations shared common acts or were part of an otherwise indivisible course of conduct. (People v. Centers (1999) 73 Cal.App.4th 84, 98; People v. Cleveland (2001) 87 Cal.App.4th 263, 267-268.)
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