Opinion ID: 1801877
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Claim Pertaining to Legislative Intent

Text: Defendant argues that the Legislature did not intend to have section 12022.53's severe sentence enhancements apply to those who, like him, are convicted of the felony of shooting at an inhabited dwelling (§ 246) for the purpose of benefitting a criminal street gang (§ 186.22(b)(4)). When the Legislature enacted section 12022.53 in 1997, section 186.22(b)(4) did not contain the current penalty provision calling for life imprisonment for committing the felony of shooting at an inhabited dwelling to benefit a criminal street gang. (That provision was added three years later in an initiative measure, Prop. 21, which, as previously explained, made many changes to laws pertaining to juvenile offenders and to gang-related crimes.) Thus, in 1997 a defendant who shot at an inhabited dwelling to benefit a criminal street gang would not have been subject to section 12022.53's sentence enhancements, because such conduct was at that time not punishable by imprisonment for life. As enacted in 1997, the additional punishments called for under section 12022.53 applied to 16 specified felonies (murder, mayhem, kidnapping, robbery, carjacking, felonious assault, assault with a firearm on a peace officer or firefighter, six forms of sexual assault, two forms of assault by a prisoner, and the holding of a hostage by a prisoner). The statute's additional punishments also applied to two general categories of felonies (attempts to commit any of the specified felonies other than assault, and felonies punishable by death or imprisonment for life). This list of qualifying offenses has not changed since section 12022.53 was enacted. (See § 12022.53, subd. (a).) Defendant here points out that all of the 16 felonies listed in section 12022.53 entail violence against the person, and he asserts that when this statute was enacted in 1997 the same was also true of every felony that fell into the statute's two general categories. But shooting at an inhabited dwelling (§ 246), he argues, is not necessarily a crime of violence against a person, because someone shooting at an inhabited dwelling violates section 246 even when nobody happens to be inside the dwelling. (See § 246 [As used in this section, `inhabited' means currently being used for dwelling purposes, whether occupied or not.].) Thus, defendant reasons, the Legislature must have intended to have section 12022.53's severe sentence enhancements apply only to those who commit violent crimes against others and not to those shooting at an inhabited dwelling. Defendant's argument fails for two reasons. First, he is wrong in asserting that when section 12022.53 was enacted in 1997, every offense to which it applied involved violence against a person. For example, treason (§ 37), which is punishable by death or life imprisonment and thus falls into one of the two general categories set forth in section 12022.53, is neither violent nor directed against a person. This is also true of some forms of aggravated arson. (§ 451.5.) Second, even if, as defendant contends, the offenses covered by section 12022.53 at the time of its 1997 enactment were all violent felonies directed against others, the Legislature did not limit the statute's reach to such crimes; rather, the Legislature expressly stated in section 12022.53's subdivision (a)(17) that the statute's additional punishments apply to any felony punishable by life imprisonment. That phrasing left open the possibility of future enactment of a provision making certain crimes not involving violent acts directed against others punishable by life imprisonment, and thus subject to the additional punishment set forth in section 12022.53. That is precisely what happened in 2000 when the electorate, through Proposition 21, amended section 186.22(b)(4) to provide that certain felonies, including shooting at an inhabited dwelling (§ 246), were punishable by life imprisonment when committed to benefit a criminal street gang. Thus, we reject defendant's contention that the Legislature's original 1997 enactment of section 12022.53's sentence enhancements indicated an intent not to apply them to those who, like defendant here, shoot at an inhabited dwelling to benefit a criminal street gang.