Opinion ID: 1390734
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The 10-year limitation of section 3024(d) applies to terms of imprisonment imposed under section 12022.5.

Text: The majority opinion asserts that section 3024(d) is concerned only with the minimum sentences imposed for the underlying felonies and not with the additional imprisonment which may follow a finding of use of a firearm under section 12022.5. This assertion fails to distinguish the functions served by sections 12022.5 and 3024(d), and is refuted by the language and legislative history of those enactments. Sections 12022.5 and 3024 serve distinct and independent functions in the structure of the California criminal process. Section 12022.5 is a sentencing statute. Its mandate, directed to the trial court, requires that court to sentence a defendant found to have used a firearm in the commission of an enumerated felony to additional terms of imprisonment. Under California's Indeterminate Sentence Law (Pen. Code, § 2900 et seq.), however, the imposition of sentence by the trial court does not determine the actual term of confinement in state prison. The Legislature has delegated the task of fixing the actual term of imprisonment to the Adult Authority. (See Pen. Code, § 3020.) Section 3024, on the other hand, is not a sentencing statute, but one of the provisions limiting the discretion of the Adult Authority in fixing the actual term of confinement. Penal Code section 3023 provides generally that the Adult Authority must fix a term within the maximum and minimum terms provided by the statutes governing imposition of sentence; section 3024 then specifies four exceptional circumstances under which the Adult Authority must fix terms greater than the maximum or less than the minimum term provided by the sentencing statute. This last point deserves reemphasis: the sole function of section 3024 is to compel the Adult Authority, under the circumstances there defined, to fix terms different from those authorized or required by the sentencing statutes. Thus when the Adult Authority follows the mandate of section 3024 it is not frustrating the legislative intent as embodied in the sentencing laws, but fulfilling the legislative intent as embodied in the Indeterminate Sentence Law. The specific purpose of section 3024(d) is to place an upper limit on the total minimum term which persons convicted of more than one felony can suffer. By limiting the effect of the sentencing judge's exercise of the power to impose consecutive sentences under section 669, it provides the Adult Authority with greater flexibility in its consideration of the merits of the case of each individual prisoner in fixing terms and setting parole dates. This flexibility is an essential part of the Indeterminate Sentence Law. As we noted in In re Foss (1974) 10 Cal.3d 910, 923-924 [112 Cal. Rptr. 649, 519 P.2d 1073], authorities on penology and criminal corrections have objected to mandatory minimum sentences precluding parole consideration because they prevent correctional authorities from taking into account, within a given classification of offenses, differences in the seriousness of the violations, adjustment of the offender and his potential for rehabilitation. (See also In re Minnis (1972) 7 Cal.3d 639, 644 [102 Cal. Rptr. 749, 498 P.2d 997].) Lengthy periods of parole ineligibility which result from imposition of consecutive sentences also present a danger of excessive variation in the sentencing practices of individual judges; restriction on the cumulation of minimum terms provides a means for attainment of uniformity from region to region and judge to judge. (See Johnson, Multiple Punishment and Consecutive Sentences: Reflections on the Neal Doctrine (1970) 58 Cal.L.Rev. 357, 385.) Although section 12022.5 explicitly sanctions long minimum and maximum terms for recidivist firearm users, it does not conflict with the purposes of section 3024(d). It says nothing whatsoever about the cumulation of minimum terms for persons, such as the instant defendant, who commit multiple felonies which are or could be tried together. It states that the additional period of imprisonment which it imposes shall commence upon expiration or other termination of the sentence imposed for the crime of which he is convicted and shall not run concurrently with such sentence,  (italics added), but it is silent as to whether the additional term must be consecutive to the term for other crimes of which the defendant is convicted. In the instant case, the additional penalty for the use of a firearm would properly be consecutive to the five-year minimum sentences for each of the robberies. Nothing in section 12022.5, however, required the resulting 10-year minimum terms for the three robberies to be made consecutive to each other. The imposition of 3 concurrent 10-year-to-life terms is fully consistent with that section. [4] Thus, the language and purpose of section 12022.5 offer no clue to the resolution of the issue before this court. The language and history of section 3024(d), however, is conclusive of the issue. Section 3024 expressly provides that its provisions must be observed notwithstanding any other provisions of this code. Since section 3024 specifies exceptions to the rule that the sentencing statutes define the maximum and minimum terms, the obvious purport of this language is to assure that the Adult Authority will apply section 3024 notwithstanding any contrary provisions in the sentencing laws. Penal Code section 12202.5 is among the other provisions of this code which, by express legislative declaration, is subordinate to section 3024. The majority, however, notes that section 12022.5 does not define crimes or offenses, but merely increases the penalty to be imposed for the underlying felony. From this observation it concludes that such increased term is not subject to the limitations of section 3024. The conclusion does not follow from the premise. Section 3024 does not distinguish between underlying felonies and additional terms; it speaks generally of terms of sentence and imprisonment. Additional confinement pursuant to section 12022.5 is plainly a term of imprisonment, imposed by the sentence of the trial court, and thus falls within the language of section 3024. [5] The conclusion that section 3024(d) applies to additional terms of imprisonment imposed under section 12022.5, so clearly compelled by the language of those statutes, is reinforced by their legislative history and by the placement of section 3024(d) in the Penal Code. The exact language of section 3024(d), originally enacted in 1933 as an amendment to the Indeterminate Sentence Law (§ 1168) (Stats. 1933, ch. 814, § 1, p. 2156) was obviously designed to reduce the deleterious effect on that law which could have resulted from an earlier amendment (Stats. 1927, ch. 768, § 1, p. 1491) imposing mandatory minimum terms for armed felons and felons with prior felonies. That earlier amendment, now contained in section 3024(a), (b) and (c), provided in 1933 for a mandatory minimum term of 10 years for an armed felon with a prior felony. By imposing the 10-year ceiling of minimum terms for persons convicted of more than one felony, the Legislature clearly manifested its concern that the cumulation of minima for multiple felons would have frustrated the purpose of the Indeterminate Sentence Law by tying the hands of the correctional authorities for exceedingly long periods of time. Section 3024(d) was originally and still is a restriction on cumulation of the minimum terms imposed by section 3024(a), (b), and (c); and indeed it is so labelled in the modern code. Similarly, section 3024(d) restricts the cumulation of minimum terms for persons who have committed more than one violation covered by sections 12022 and 12022.5. These sections perform a deterrent function as to use of firearms commensurate to that of section 3024(a), (b), and (c). At the time of the enactment of the predecessor of section 3024(d), the progenitor of sections 12022 and 12022.5 had been in force for 10 years, having originally been incorporated in 1923 as an amendment to the Deadly Weapons Act (Stats. 1923, ch. 339, § 3, p. 696). The minimum penalty provisions of that act coincided with those of modern sections 12022 and 12022.5, and provided, exactly in the language of the modern sections, that the additional penalties were to be imposed consecutively to the sentences for the underlying felonies. Presumably the Legislature was aware of the Deadly Weapons Act when it adopted the predecessor of section 3024(d); the Legislature could hardly have intended to apply the 10-year upper limit to one set of mandatory minimum terms (now contained in § 3024(a), (b) and (c)), but not to another very similar set. [6] The court's holding today is more than an erroneous reading of two penal statutes. It casts shadows more far reaching than the majority realizes. If section 3024(d) is interpreted so as to be inapplicable to additional terms of imprisonment imposed under section 12022.5, the statutory language notwithstanding, then there seems to be no reason why other specific statutes which impose heavy additional penalties for a single offense, such as Health and Safety Code section 11350 et seq. and Penal Code sections 213, 264 and 461 could not likewise be judicially expanded to allow unbridled cumulation of minimum terms for persons convicted of more than one such offense. Such a result would go far toward writing section 3024(d) off the books, and would strike a heavy blow to the Indeterminate Sentence Law. Despite the Legislature's express intention, many persons convicted of more than one such felony could be incarcerated for decades without the possibility of release or parole, whatever merits the Adult Authority might find in their cases. Accordingly, I would order the Department of Corrections and Adult Authority to modify their records to reflect that defendant's aggregate minimum term for the 3 convictions of first-degree robbery with use of firearms is 10 years. In all other respects, I believe the judgment should be affirmed.