Is there a double life term imposed on count 1 of attempted murder?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Jefferson, 50 Cal.App.4th 958, 58 Cal.Rptr.2d 252 (Cal. App. 1996):

The trial court erred in imposing a "double life term" on count 1. Where, as here, "a defendant has one prior felony conviction that has been pled and proved, the determinate term or minimum term for an indeterminate term shall be twice the term otherwise provided as punishment for the current felony conviction." ( 667, subd. (e)(1).) As we previously pointed out, "[i]t is only the determinate term (and minimum sentence for an indeterminate term) that may be doubled, since that is what is 'provided as punishment for the current felony conviction.' " (People v. Martin (1995) 32 Cal.App.4th 656, 666, 38 Cal.Rptr.2d 776 (review den.).)

Appellants were each convicted in counts 1 and 2 of attempted willful, deliberate and premeditated murder. "[I]f the crime attempted is willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder, as defined in Section 189, the person guilty of that attempt shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life with the possibility of parole[.]" ( 664.) Section 189 provides in pertinent part that a murder which is carried out by a "willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing ... is murder of the first degree." The penalty for a person convicted of first degree murder who is not sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole is "confinement in the state prison for a term of 25 years to life." ( 190, subd. (a).) Subdivision (d) of section 664 provides: "If a crime is divided into degrees, an attempt to commit the crime may be of any of those degrees, and the punishment for the attempt shall be determined as provided by this section." Our Supreme Court, however, held that attempted murder is not divided into degrees. (People v. Bright (1996) 12 Cal.4th 652, 668-669, 49 Cal.Rptr.2d 732, 909 P.2d 1354.) Accordingly, for that reason alone, the minimum term for attempted willful, deliberate and premeditated murder cannot be construed to be the 25 years minimum term for first degree murder.

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