California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Pargas, B264612 (Cal. App. 2016):
"[I]dentical language appearing in separate statutory provisions should receive the same interpretation when the statute covers the same or analogous subject matter." (People v. Cornett (2012) 53 Cal.4th 1261, 1269, fn. 6.) Here Proposition 47 and section 17 address the same subject matter: the sentencing effect to be accorded designation of a felony as a misdemeanor. We therefore give the language in Proposition 47 the same prospective-only effect our courts have given to section 17.
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