Does the Attorney General have the authority to convict a defendant of two or more attempted murders for a single act by which he intended to kill only one person?

The purpose of the transferred intent rule--to ensure that prosecution and punishment accord with culpability--would not be served by convicting a defendant of two or more attempted murders for a single act by which he intended to kill only one person. In People v. Birreuta, supra, 162 Cal.App.3d at page 460, 208 Cal.Rptr. 635, the court noted that there is a difference in culpability between an assailant who deliberately sets out to kill one person and in addition kills another accidentally, and one who deliberately kills two victims. Application of the transferred intent rule to the former would wipe out that distinction. Similarly, the attacker who shoots at two or more victims, with the intent of killing all, is more culpable than the one who aims at a single individual, even when the latter also injures a bystander. In the circumstances of this case, the transferred intent instruction obscured that difference.

The Attorney General attempts to distinguish Birreuta on the ground that the

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