THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. WAYNE RUSSELL McCLANAHAN, Defendant and Appellant.
No. S021913
Supreme Court of California
Oct 29, 1992
3 Cal. 4th 860
Bradley A. Bristow as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant.
John K. Van de Kamp and Daniel E. Lungren, Attorneys General, Richard B. Iglehart and George Williamson, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Arnold O. Overoye and Robert R. Anderson, Assistant Attorneys General, Shirley A. Nelson, Stan Cross, Rosendo Pena, Jr., Edgar A. Kerry and Louis M. Vasquez, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
OPINION
LUCAS, C. J.—We granted review in this case to determine whether
In People v. Prather (1990) 50 Cal.3d 428 [267 Cal.Rptr. 605, 787 P.2d 1012], we concluded that “prior prison term” enhancements imposed pursuant to
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Defendant was charged in the first of three separate informations with unlawful possession of methamphetamine for sale on or about December 20, 1988, in violation of
All three informations were consolidated for trial to a jury. Because only sentencing issues are raised on appeal, the underlying facts of the offenses need not be set forth in detail here. Briefly, defendant‘s home was searched pursuant to warrant on three separate occasions, leading to the recovery of various quantities of methamphetamine; paraphernalia used to package the drugs for sale; ledgers recording drug transactions and balances owed; large quantities of currency; and numerous rifles, shotguns, handguns, and automatic weapons. Defendant was found guilty of all substantive offenses charged. The jury found all the enhancement allegations true save the two arming clauses, on which unanimous agreement could not be reached. Those allegations were later dismissed on the People‘s motion.
At sentencing, the court selected the middle term of two years for the
On appeal, defendant asserted his sentence violated the double-the-base-term limitation of
DISCUSSION
In June 1982, California voters enacted Proposition 8, an initiative measure that, among other things, added
In People v. Prather, supra, 50 Cal.3d 428, we addressed the question of whether “prior prison term” enhancements under
In Prather, however, we found this aspect of our reasoning in Jackson, supra, 37 Cal.3d 826, inapplicable to the determination of whether the Legislature intended to exclude prior prison term enhancements from the double-the-base-term rule. “The Legislature‘s failure to include
Our conclusion in Prather—that the Legislature‘s failure to expressly exclude prior prison term enhancements from the double-the-base-term rule was not a “draftsman‘s oversight“—applies with equal force to
Our analysis in Prather turned next to the question of whether
We therefore concluded in Prather that, ”
”
Section 667.5(b) provides that ‘where the new offense is any felony for which a prison sentence is imposed, in addition and consecutive to any other prison terms therefor, the court shall impose a one-year term for each prior separate prison term served for any felony.’ . . . We think it clear thatsection 667.5(b) is aimed primarily at the underlying felony conviction, and only secondarily, and as an indicium of the felony‘s seriousness, at the prior prison term. That is, we believesection 667.5(b) , fairly read, merely provides a special sentence enhancement for that particular subset of ‘prior felony convictions’ that were deemed serious enough by earlier sentencingcourts to warrant actual imprisonment. [Citations.] Accordingly, we hold that the broad mandate of article I, section 28, subdivision (f) , concerning the use of any ‘prior felony conviction[s]’ for enhancement purposes, necessarily includes the lesser category of enhancements based on prior felony convictions for which imprisonment was imposed.” (People v. Prather, supra, 50 Cal.3d at p. 440, second italics added.)
We must here determine whether
Defendant, joined by amicus curiae California Public Defenders Association, observes that although ultimate conviction of the “primary offense“—i.e., that for which the person had been released from custody on bail or on his or her own recognizance when the new or “secondary offense” was committed—is a prerequisite to imposition of an on-bail enhancement (see
The Attorney General, in contrast, places principal reliance on the decisions in People v. Vega, supra, 224 Cal.App.3d 506, and People v. Burnes, supra, 224 Cal.App.3d 1222, both of which held that
The Burnes court, in an obvious attempt to comply with Prather‘s directive to interpret
” ‘Recidivism’ is nowhere defined in the Penal Code, but its common meaning is very clearly defined by Webster to mean ‘a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior; [a] repeated relapse into criminal or delinquent habits.’ (Webster‘s Third New Internat. Dict. (1961) p. 1895.) This is precisely the sort of behavior addressed by
section 12022.1 : ‘The purpose ofsection 12022.1 is to meet public concern over offenders who are arrested [and] then allowed back on the street a short time later only to commit more crimes.’ (People v. Lewis (1986) 185 Cal.App.3d 923, 927 [230 Cal.Rptr. 115]. See also, People v. Warinner (1988) 200 Cal.App.3d 1352, 1356 [247 Cal.Rptr. 197]: ‘The legislative intent ofsection 12022.1 was to punish recidivists with additional penalties.‘) Thus, the underlying purpose ofsection 12022.1 is precisely that which underliesarticle I, section —to penalize recidivistic behavior with increased punishment.” (People v. Burnes, supra, 224 Cal.App.3d at p. 1231.)28(f)
The Burnes court concluded
The same conclusion was reached by a different panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeal in People v. Vega, supra, 224 Cal.App.3d 506. The Vega court reasoned, “Although
We agree with the Burnes and Vega courts’ observation that the purpose and intent behind a
Nonetheless, although the commission of a new felony offense while released on bail or on one‘s own recognizance may fairly be characterized as a form of recidivist conduct, such a characterization does not itself transform the earlier felony—from which the defendant was released from custody when he committed the new offense—into a “prior felony conviction” for purposes of defining the elements of an on-bail enhancement. Nor do any of the above cited authorities so hold.
To the contrary, the express language of
We recognize, as did the Burnes and Vega courts, that
Although a “narrow” and “hypertechnical” construction of the term “prior felony conviction” as utilized in
We further recognize that the Burnes and Vega courts placed some reliance on this court‘s earlier comment in People v. Tassell (1984) 36 Cal.3d 77 [201 Cal.Rptr. 567, 679 P.2d 1], purportedly grouping
The Burnes court characterized this statement in Tassell as “something less than an express holding” (People v. Burnes, supra, 224 Cal.App.3d at p. 1232); the Vega court characterized it as “something more than dictum.” (People v. Vega, supra, 224 Cal.App.3d at p. 520.) Our characterization of
Defendant and amici curiae urge that an on-bail enhancement, rather than being imposed on a defendant for having suffered a “prior felony conviction” within the meaning of
In sum, although it was readily concluded in Prather that
In light of our disposition, we need not address defendant‘s further claim that to hold
CONCLUSION
The judgment of the Court of Appeal is affirmed.
Panelli, J., Kennard, J., Arabian, J., Baxter, J., and George, J., concurred.
MOSK, J.—I concur in the judgment.
It is plain that
Notes
“(a) For the purposes of this section only:
“(1) ‘Primary offense’ means a felony offense for which a person has been released from custody on bail or on his or her own recognizance prior to the judgment becoming final, including the disposition of any appeal, or for which release on bail or his or her own recognizance has been revoked.
“(2) ‘Secondary offense’ means a felony offense alleged to have been committed while the person is released from custody for a primary offense.
“(b) Any person arrested for a secondary offense which was alleged to have been committed while that person was released from custody on a primary offense shall be subject to a penalty enhancement of an additional two years in state prison which shall be served consecutive to any other term imposed by the court.
” . . .
“(d) Whenever there is a conviction for the secondary offense and the enhancement is proved, and the person is sentenced on the secondary offense prior to the conviction of the primary offense, the imposition of the enhancement shall be stayed pending imposition of the sentence for the primary offense. The stay shall be lifted by the court hearing the primary offense at the time of sentencing for that offense and shall be recorded in the abstract of judgment. If the person is acquitted of the primary offense the stay shall be permanent.
“(e) If the person is convicted of a felony for the primary offense, is sentenced to state prison for the primary offense, and is convicted of a felony for the secondary offense, any state prison sentence for the secondary offense shall be consecutive to the primary sentence.
” . . .
“(g) If the primary offense conviction is reversed on appeal, the enhancement shall be suspended pending retrial of that felony. Upon retrial and reconviction, the enhancement shall be reimposed . . . .”
