Can a defendant be charged with and convicted of multiple offences based on a single act?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Anderson, B242392 (Cal. App. 2013):

"Section 954 sets forth the general rule that defendants may be charged with and convicted of multiple offenses based on a single act or an indivisible course of conduct. It provides in relevant part: 'An accusatory pleading may charge two or more different offenses connected together in their commission, or different statements of the same offense . . . . The prosecution is not required to elect between the different offenses or counts set forth in the accusatory pleading, but the defendant may be convicted of any number of the offenses charged, . . .'" (People v. Pearson (1986) 42 Cal.3d 351, 354.)

Page 13

Multiple convictions based on necessarily included offenses, however, are prohibited. (People v. Reed (2006) 38 Cal.4th 1224, 1227.)

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