Hammon

Once again we grapple with the constraints on punishment for serial sex acts. In People v. Reeder (1984) 152 Cal.App.3d 900 [ 200 Cal.Rptr. 479 ], we examined the requirement for mandatory full-term consecutive sentences for violent sex offenses under Penal Code section 667.7, subdivision (d) when they “involve the same victim on separate occasions.” We held that the “Legislature’s use of the phrase ‘separate occasions’ ... imposes a requirement of detachment of one episode from another before the mandatory requirements of subdivision (d) become applicable. By detachment we mean an interruption in the criminal activity of sufficient duration or nature that the end of one sexual episode and the start of another can be ascertained with reasonable certainty.” ( 152 Cal.App.3d at p. 915 , fn. omitted.) We return to that theme of divisibility in this case. This time we wrestle with the problem of multiplicity of offenses. As Witkin notes and we can attest, “[e]xtreme difficulty has been encountered by the courts in resolving problems of ‘merger,’ ‘concurrence,’ and ‘multiplicity’; i.e., in determining when acts or transactions give rise to a single offense, and when they…