Court Opinion

ID: 9546760
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:35:04.959098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:50.017853
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent.
If we could proceed under principles of moral culpability defendant could be, and deserves to be, punished for both vehicular manslaughter (former Pen. Code, § 192, subd. (c)(3), Stats. 1984, ch. 742, § 1, pp. 2703-2704) and felony drunk driving (Veh. Code, § 23153, subd. (a)). But unlike the majority, I conclude that under the unequivocal positive law as declared in Penal Code section 654 (hereinafter section 654) defendant may not be punished for both offenses.
Section 654 provides in relevant part that “An act or omission which is made punishable in different ways by different provisions . . . may be punished under either of such provisions, but in no case can it be punished under more than one . . . .” Thus, a person who commits a single criminal act may receive only a single punishment, even though his act may constitute several criminal offenses.
In the case at bar, defendant committed a single criminal act: driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated. It is true that defendant’s act resulted in two criminal offenses: vehicular manslaughter and felony drunk driving. That it did so, however, has a single legal consequence: under section 654 defendant may be punished for either one of the two offenses, but not both.
I recognize that section 654 has been held not to apply when a single act amounts to a crime against each of two or more persons. (See, e.g., Neal v. State of California (1960) 55 Cal.2d 11, 20-21 [9 Cal.Rptr. 607, 357 P.2d 839] [attempted murder of two persons].) This “exception,” however, is not operative here: although vehicular manslaughter is plainly a crime against the person, felony drunk driving—regardless of its consequences—is not (see People v. McNiece (1986) 181 Cal.App.3d 1048, 1064 [226 Cal.Rptr. *807733]; People v. Lobaugh (1971) 18 Cal.App.3d 75, 79-80 [95 Cal.Rptr. 547] [construing the relevantly similar predecessor of Veh. Code, § 23153, subd. (a)]).
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent.