Does section 654 of the California Code of Criminal Code require a separate intent and objective for each sex offence?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Gonzalez, E063692 (Cal. App. 2016):

trial court's implied finding that a defendant harbored a separate intent and objective for each offense." (People v. Dowdell (2014) 227 Cal.App.4th 1388, 1414.)

In Perez, over a 45- to 60-minute period, the defendant orally copulated his victim, sodomized her, forced her to orally copulate him twice, had vaginal intercourse with her twice, and forcibly inserted a metal tube into both her rectum and vagina. (People v. Perez, supra, 23 Cal.3d at p. 549.) The defendant contended that section 654 precluded punishment for more than one of the sex offenses because they were all committed with the single intent and objective of obtaining sexual gratification. (Id. at p. 550.) The Perez court rejected this contention, explaining that "[a] defendant who attempts to achieve sexual gratification by committing a number of base criminal acts on his victim is substantially more culpable than a defendant who commits only one such act. We therefore decline to extend the single intent and objective test of section 654 beyond its purpose to prelude punishment for each such act." (Id. at p. 553.)

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