Court Opinion

ID: 9548344
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:02:02.779725+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:49.721249
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I concur in the judgment. In my view, defendant was properly convicted of three separate violations of Penal Code section 289 (hereinafter *339section 289) and was punished for each violation without offense to Penal Code section 654 (hereinafter section 654). Accordingly, I believe that the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the conviction and sentence in this regard, must be affirmed.
I cannot concur, however, in the majority’s opinion.
I have serious doubt that the majority’s discussion of section 289 is sound.1 They interpret the provision to declare unqualifiedly that each time a person “causes the penetration, however slight, of the genital or anal openings of another person,” he commits a separate and independent offense: “a new and separate violation of section 289 is ‘completed’ each time a new and separate ‘penetration, however slight’ occurs” (maj. opn., ante, at p. 329, italics in original). They base their conclusion on the premise that “a violation of section 289 is ‘complete’ the instant ‘slight’ ‘penetration’ . . . occurs.” (Ibid.)
I believe that the statutory provision may properly be interpreted to declare that each penetration constitutes a separate offense in the general case. But I find it hard to believe that the provision can be read—as it is read by the majority—to declare that each penetration constitutes a separate offense in all cases and under all circumstances as a matter of law. Certainly, such an interpretation is not supported by the premise relied on: as the relevant language and its history reveal, the phrase, “penetration, however slight,” was intended to distinguish between an attempt and the completed crime, not between one completed crime and another. Moreover, such an interpretation could readily yield untenable results in individual cases.
I also have serious doubt that the majority’s discussion of section 654 is sound.2 They present an extended and intricate analysis to support their conclusion that the provision is inapplicable to the case at bar. In my view, such an analysis is unnecessary. Here, defendant committed not one but three acts of penetration, each interrupted by a distinct violent assault. Thus *340section 654, which governs when there is a single “act,” does not apply. But even if the three acts could be deemed to constitute a single “act” for present purposes, the result would be the same. Section 654 is operative when there is an “act” that is made punishable “in different ways by different provisions” of the Penal Code. The “act” here, however, is made punishable only in one way by one provision.
For the foregoing reasons, although I concur in the majority’s disposition I cannot concur in their reasoning.

 At the time relevant here, section 289 provided in pertinent part: “Every person who causes the penetration, however slight, of the genital or anal openings of another person, by any foreign object, substance, instrument, or device when the act is accomplished against the victim’s will by means of force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification, or abuse, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for three, six, or eight years.” (Former Pen. Code, § 289, subd. (a), Stats. 1982, ch. 1111, § 6, p. 4026.) For purposes here, the provision in its current form is to the same effect.

 Section 654 provides in relevant part: “An act or omission which is made punishable in different ways by different provisions of this code [i.e., the Penal Code] may be punished under either of such provisions, but in no case can it be punished under more than one . . . .”