Can a defendant be punished multiple punishment for a single criminal act or omission that violates more than one penal statute?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Martinez, D062720 (Cal. App. 2014):

Section 654 prohibits multiple punishment where a single criminal act or omission violates more than one penal statute. This statutory prohibition has been extended to cases in which an indivisible course of conduct with a single objective violates several different penal statutes. (See Neal v. State of California (1960) 55 Cal.2d 11, 19.) "If all of the crimes were merely incidental to, or were the means of accomplishing or facilitating one objective, a defendant may be punished only once. [Citation.] If, however, a defendant had several independent criminal objectives, he may be punished for each crime committed in pursuit of each objective, even though the crimes shared common acts or were parts of an otherwise indivisible course of conduct. [Citation.]" (People v. Perry (2007) 154 Cal.App.4th 1521, 1525.)

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