People v. Kramer

Opinion

CHIN, J.

Sometimes a single act constitutes more than one crime. When that happens, the person committing the act can be convicted of each of those crimes, but Penal Code section 654 1 prohibits punishing the person for more than one of them. When a defendant is convicted of two or more offenses for which section 654 prohibits multiple punishment, the trial court must impose sentence for one of them and stay imposition of sentence for the others. (See People v. Norrell (1996) 13 Cal.4th 1 [51 Cal.Rptr.2d 429, 913 P.2d 458] (Norrell).) In Norrell, we interpreted section 654 as allowing…