California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Cook, 183 Cal.Rptr.3d 502, 342 P.3d 404, 60 Cal.4th 922 (Cal. 2015):
cases of vehicular manslaughter, the increase in punishment for additional persons injured will be less if we interpret section 12022.7, subdivision (g), to mean what it says than it would be under an interpretation that permits great bodily injury enhancements for other victims to attach to a manslaughter conviction. This is because the statutory punishment for vehicular manslaughter is relatively short and even shorter for additional victims. The vehicle manslaughter conviction of this case is punishable by two, four, or six years. ( 193, subd. (c)(1).) A consecutive sentence for additional convictions would be for one-third of the middle term of four years, or one year four months. ( 1170.1, subd. (a); see People v. Felix (2000) 22 Cal.4th 651, 655, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 54, 995 P.2d 186.) One year four months is shorter than the three-year great bodily injury enhancement specified in section 12022.7, subdivision (a), and even more so than the longer enhancements specified in other subdivisions of that section, such as section 12022.7, subdivision (b)'s five-year enhancement for causing a coma. This means that if the sentence for the one manslaughter victim may be enhanced for other victims' great bodily injuries, then the sentence for the manslaughter of the other victims would always be subsumed by the enhancement.
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