California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Smith, H044392 (Cal. App. 2018):
Defendant asserts that the conviction for count 1 must be reversed and the punishment imposed on that conviction must be stricken because count 1 was a lesser included offense of count 2. "A judicially created exception to the general rule permitting multiple conviction 'prohibits multiple convictions based on necessarily included offenses.' [Citation.] '[I]f a crime cannot be committed without also necessarily committing a lesser offense, the latter is a lesser included offense within the former.' [Citation.]" (People v. Reed (2006) 38 Cal.4th 1224, 1227 (Reed).)
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The appropriate remedy for conviction of both the greater offense and the lesser included offense is to strike the conviction of the lesser included offense. (See People v. Medina (2007) 41 Cal.4th 685, 703.)
In deciding whether multiple conviction is proper, "a court should consider only the statutory elements." (Reed, supra, 38 Cal.4th at p.1229; id. at p. 1231.) "Under the elements test, if the statutory elements of the greater offense include all of the statutory elements of the lesser offense, the latter is necessarily included in the former." (Id. at p. 1227.) "In other words, ' "[i]f a crime cannot be committed without also necessarily committing a lesser offense, the latter is a lesser included offense within the former." ' [Citations.]" (People v. Delgado (2017) 2 Cal.5th 544, 570.)
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