Neely

“Do the crime, do the time,” is a bedrock principle of criminal law; straightforward, simple, and concise. A defendant should know the consequences likely to flow from committing a crime. Likewise, the prosecutor, defense counsel and sentencing judge should know the length of the sentence and the rules for its determination. But, often they do not.

For over 30 years, opinions of the California Courts of Appeal have commented on the frustrating and needless complexity of the determinate sentencing law (DSL). Reversals and remands for resentencing resulting from the misapplication of the DSL litter the pages of appellate decisions, both published and unpublished. This is yet another such case to fall victim to the “labyrinthine procedures,” of the “legislative monstrosity” whose “mind-numbingly complicated” statutes are “capable of ensnaring even its most erudite afficionados.” Here, the collective experience and wisdom of the trial judge, the prosecutor and defense counsel resulted in an unlawful sentence whose pronouncement violated the rules governing (1) the imposition of consecutive sentences that implicate indeterminate and determinate terms, (2) the proper selection…