Sasser

When a defendant with one prior “strike” is convicted of a subsequent felony, the second strike provision of the “Three Strikes” law requires that he be sentenced to “twice the term otherwise provided as punishment for the current felony conviction.” (Pen. Code,- § 667, subd. (e)(1); all subsequent statutory references are to this code.) If the current offense is a serious felony, he is also subject to a five-year prior serious felony enhancement on top of that doubled term. (§ 667, subd. (a)(1).) In cases where the second strike offender has only one current offense, the sentencing arithmetic is simple: The trial court selects the base term, doubles it, and adds five years.

But when a defendant’s second strike sentence includes multiple terms for several offenses, calculating the correct sentence can become more complex. We granted review to determine whether the prior serious felony enhancement may be applied to the term imposed for each current offense or only once to the determinate portion of the overall sentence. Finding our decision in People v. Tassell (1984) 36 Cal.3d 77, 89-92 [ 201 Cal.Rptr. 567 , 679 P.2d 1 ] (Tassell) applicable in this context, we conclude…