Can a defendant be punished for more than one act under section 654 of the California Criminal Code?

Section 654 prohibits punishment for two offenses arising from the same act or from a series of acts constituting an indivisible course of conduct. (People v. Latimer (1993) 5 Cal.4th 1203, 1207-1208.)

Thus, if a defendant is convicted of several offenses that were incident to one objective, the defendant may be punished for any one of such offenses, but not more than one. (People v. Perez (1979) 23 Cal.3d 545, 551 (Perez).)

To put in another way, section 654 has been applied not only where there is one "act" but also where there is a course of conduct that violates more than one statute, but nevertheless constitutes an indivisible transaction. (Perez, supra, 23 Cal.3d at p. 551.) Whether a course of conduct is divisible and thus gives rise to more than one act under section 654 depends on the defendant's intent and objective. (Neal v. State of California (1960) 55 Cal.2d 11, 19.) If all of a defendant's offenses were incident to one objective, he or she may be punished for any one of the offenses, but not more than one. (Ibid.) However, if a defendant entertains multiple criminal objectives independent of and not merely incidental to each other, he or she may be punished for the independent violations committed in pursuit of each objective even though the violations were part of an otherwise indivisible course of conduct. (Perez, supra, 23 Cal.3d at p. 551.)