Opinion ID: 2581604
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Lewd and Lascivious Conduct Special Circumstance

Text: Defendant, citing the plurality opinion in People v. Harris (1984) 36 Cal.3d 36, 62, 201 Cal.Rptr. 782, 679 P.2d 433 (disapproved on other grounds in People v. Bell (1989) 49 Cal.3d 502, 526, fn. 12, 262 Cal. Rptr. 1, 778 P.2d 129), argues that because the lewd conduct special circumstance is based on the same evidence as the rape and sodomy special circumstances, the lewd conduct special circumstance violates the federal and state constitutional prohibitions against cumulative use of the same conduct. This essentially reiterates defendant's earlier contention that the rape or sodomy and the lewd conduct are actually the same act described as different crimes, and that it is therefore error to allege three different special circumstances based upon what were actually two criminal acts. Again, defendant's premise is unsound. The distinction between the crimes of rape and sodomy and that of a lewd act on a child, as set forth above, is identical to the distinction between the special circumstance for felony murder in the course of a lewd act on a child and that of felony-murder rape and felony-murder sodomy (see People v. Stansbury (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1017, 1069, 17 Cal.Rptr.2d 174, 846 P.2d 756 ( Stansbury ), revd. on other grounds in Stansbury v. California (1994) 511 U.S. 318, 114 S.Ct. 1526, 128 L.Ed.2d 293)  even if based upon the same acts, they are different crimes. The special circumstance allegation of felony murder in the course of a lewd act on a child can be based on the same conduct as the allegations of felony-murder-rape and felony-murder-sodomy special circumstances. Defendant's attempt to distinguish People v. Melton (1988) 44 Cal.3d 713, 244 Cal.Rptr. 867, 750 P.2d 741, is unpersuasive. There, we held underlying felonies based on separate felonious acts arising from an indivisible course of conduct with a single criminal intent do not preclude each felony from being considered a distinct aggravating factor under section 190.3, factor (a). Defendant argues his case presented a single act, not an indivisible course of conduct, and separate consideration of special circumstances based upon the rape or sodomy and lewd act would constitute an improper double-counting of a single aggravating factor. As discussed above, the rape or sodomy and lewd conduct, while based upon the same conduct, were not the same crimes but were part of an indivisible course of conduct, and therefore each felony can be considered a distinct aggravating factor.