Ahmed

A jury convicted defendant of one crime—assault with a firearm—and found true two sentence enhancement allegations as to that crime—personal use of a firearm and personal infliction of great bodily injury. We granted review to decide the relevance, if any, of Penal Code section 654, which generally prohibits multiple punishments for the same act or omission, to the question of whether a court may impose multiple enhancements for a single crime; and, more specifically, whether the court properly imposed both enhancements in this case. [1]

(1) We conclude that a court deciding how multiple enhancements interact should first examine the specific sentencing statutes. If, as is often the case, these statutes provide the answer, the court should apply that answer and stop there. Because specific statutes prevail over general statutes, consideration of the more general section 654 will be unnecessary. Only if the specific statutes do not provide the answer should the court turn to section 654. We conclude that section 654 does apply in that situation, but the analysis must be adjusted to account for the differing natures of substantive crimes and enhancements.

(2) In this…

A jury convicted defendant of one crime—assault with a firearm—and found true two sentence enhancement allegations as to that crime—personal use of a firearm and personal infliction of great bodily injury. We granted review to decide the relevance, if any, of Penal Code section 654, which generally prohibits multiple punishments for the same act or omission, to the question of whether a court may impose multiple enhancements for a single crime; and, more specifically, whether the court properly imposed both enhancements in this case.

We conclude that a court deciding how multiple enhancements interact should first examine the specific sentencing statutes. If, as is often the case, these statutes provide the answer, the court should apply that answer and stop there. Because specific statutes prevail over general statutes, consideration of the more general section 654 will be unnecessary. Only if the specific statutes do not provide the answer should the court turn to section *160 654. We conclude that section 654 does apply in that situation, but the analysis must be adjusted to account for the differing natures of substantive crimes and enhancements.

In this case, the…

I agree with the majority that the prohibition against multiple punishment for a single act or omission in Penal Code section 654 *169 applies to sentence enhancements, but that subdivisions (f) and (g) of Penal Code section 1170.1 permit imposing enhancements for both using a firearm and inflicting great bodily injury in the present case. These conclusions resolve this case. Accordingly, I do not join in that portion of the majority opinion that discusses how section 654 applies to enhancements. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 163-164.) The wisdom and workability of the rule that “when applied to multiple enhancements for a single crime, section 654 bars multiple punishment for the same aspect of a criminal act” are difficult to determine in the abstract. I would not opine on how section 654 applies to enhancements until we are called upon to resolve an actual dispute on that question. Until such a concrete dispute arises, the Legislature may wish to clarify the scope of Penal Code section 654 in general, and how that statute applies to criminal sentence enhancements in particular.

Werdegar, J, concurred.