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5 By prohibiting multiple punishments for a single criminal act Penal Code section 654. affords protection beyond and different from that given by either the constitutional proscrip-. tion of subsequent jeopardy or the implementation of that doctrine by Penal Code section 1023..
Criminal intentâalso called mens reaâis an element of some, but not all, crimes. What makes a crime a crime? In most cases, an act is a crime because the person committing it intended to do something that the state legislature or Congress has determined is wrong, also known as criminal intent. This mental state is generally referred to as mens rea, Latin for guilty mind..