California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Ramirez, 189 Cal.App.3d 603, 236 Cal.Rptr. 404 (Cal. App. 1987):
In the present case, had murder been the sole object of the conspiracy it would be impermissible to punish both the conspiracy and the substantive offense of attempted murder, but permissible to punish the sex offenses and robberies which were not objects of the conspiracy. Since the evidence necessarily shows an agreement to commit sex offenses as well as murder, however, punishment for both the sex offenses and the conspiracy violated the prohibition of section 654 just as would punishment for both conspiracy and attempted murder 21--despite the fact that only conspiracy to commit murder was charged. Thus the case must be remanded to allow the trial court to choose whether to stay sentence on the conspiracy or on the sex offenses. (People v. Cavanaugh, supra, 147 Cal.App.3d 1178, 1183, 195 Cal.Rptr. 787.) The stay of sentence on the attempted murder counts must, of course, remain.
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