California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Prince, B297599 (Cal. App. 2021):
the analysis is adjusted to account for the differing nature of substantive crimes and enhancements. (See People v. Ahmed (2011) 53 Cal.4th 156, 163.) "[E]nhancement provisions do not define criminal acts; rather, they increase the punishment for those acts. They focus on aspects of the criminal act that are not always present and that warrant additional punishment." (Ibid.) Separate enhancements or sentencing factors may be applied to different aspects of the same substantive offense, but "section 654 bars multiple punishment for the same aspect of a criminal act." (Id. at p. 164.) "If section 654 barred any additional punishment for a single criminal act, then no enhancement at all would be permitted, a result obviously inconsistent with the function of sentence enhancements." (Ibid.)
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