What is the effect of section 654 of the California Criminal Code on a defendant's sentencing for kidnapping and rape?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Latimer, 13 Cal.App.4th 279, 8 Cal.Rptr.2d 883 (Cal. App. 1992):
Insofar as it is pertinent here, section 654 states: "An act or omission which is made punishable in different ways by different provisions of this [13 Cal.App.4th 284] code may be punished under either of such provisions, but in no case can it be punished under more than one; ..." Section 654 applies to limit punishment in those situations, among others, where a defendant violates more than one criminal statute by engaging in an indivisible course of conduct which is comprised of more than one particular act but which is pursued with but one "intent and objective." (People v. Perez (1979) 23 Cal.3d 545, 551, 153 Cal.Rptr. 40, 591 P.2d 63.)
In this case, defendant argues that the facts indisputably show his kidnapping of the victim to have been carried out in furtherance of, and only in furtherance of, his single "intent and objective" of raping the victim, and that this singularity of intent and objective, under section 654, precludes his being sentenced separately on the kidnapping count as well as on the two rape counts. 3 (See People v. Harrison
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