Opinion
GEORGE, C. J.
In 1994, the Legislature, and thereafter the electorate, enacted similar “Three Strikes” laws. (See Pen. Code, §§ 667, subds. (b)-(i), 1170.12.)1 Under these provisions, a defendant who has one qualifying prior conviction, or “strike,” may receive a lengthier sentence than would have been possible without that strike, and a defendant with two strikes may receive an even lengthier sentence. (See People v. Superior Court {Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497, 504-506 [53 Cal.Rptr.2d 789, 917 P.2d 628] {Romero).) In the present case, defendant has two prior felony convictions— (1) residential burglary, and (2) assault with intent to commit murder— sustained in one action and arising out of the same set of facts. The trial court in the earlier action imposed sentence for one of those convictions, but stayed the sentence on the other under Penal Code section 654, which prohibits multiple punishment under certain circumstances.2 (See generally, People v. Latimer (1993) 5 Cal.4th 1203 [23 Cal.Rptr.2d 144, 858 P.2d 611].) Each conviction individually would qualify as a strike. The question before us is whether defendant has one strike or two.
We conclude that the plain language, legislative history, and legislative purpose of the Three Strikes law compel the conclusion that when a court has stayed sentence on an otherwise qualifying conviction under section 654, the stayed conviction may be treated as a strike. Accordingly, we conclude [27]*27that defendant has two strikes, not one. We therefore affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which found that defendant has two strikes.
I.
On November 30, 1994, defendant was arrested for shoplifting a carton of cigarettes worth $20 from a Target store. He subsequently was convicted by a jury of petty theft with a prior. (§ 666.) Two prior strikes were found true. Defendant was sentenced to state prison for 25 years to life.
Defendant’s prior strikes are based upon an incident that occurred in 1979. According to the probation officer’s report, defendant resided in the same apartment building as the victim. He went to her apartment to borrow her vacuum cleaner. After returning the vacuum cleaner a short time later, he returned again to her apartment, stating that he had left his keys there. Once inside the victim’s residence, defendant grabbed her from behind and struggled with her, forcing her to the floor and displaying a knife. He thereafter stabbed her approximately 20 times over most of her body. The victim was able to provide law enforcement officers with the identity of her assailant. The officers located the knife and the bloody clothing at defendant’s apartment. The following day, defendant turned himself in to the police and was placed under arrest. As a result of the attack, the victim underwent four major surgeries and was severely scarred.
Based upon the foregoing incident, defendant was convicted by a jury in 1980 of residential burglary (§ 459) and assault with the intent to commit murder (former § 217, repealed by Stats. 1980, ch. 300, § 2, p. 628, eff. Jan. • 1, 1981; see now, generally, § 664). He was found to have used a knife (§ 12022, subd. (b)) and to have inflicted great bodily injury (§ 12022.7) in the commission of those offenses. The trial court entered a judgment of conviction against defendant for the crime of residential burglary and the crime of assault with intent to commit murder.3 The record reflects that the sentence on the assault conviction was stayed.4
[28]*28In the present case, defendant requested that the trial court strike the prior conviction allegations, as violative of the proscription against double punishment contained within section 654, and in the interest of justice, pursuant to section 1385. The trial court denied the request, finding no violation of section 654, and expressing the view that, under the Three Strikes law, it lacked the authority under section 1385 to strike a prior conviction allegation. As noted, defendant thereafter was convicted of having committed petty theft with a prior. The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment and remanded the matter to allow the trial court to exercise its discretion to strike one of the prior conviction allegations, because the trial court had stated on the record its mistaken belief that it lacked discretion to strike the prior. (See Romero, supra, 13 Cal.4th 497, 529-532; People v. Fuhrman, supra, 16 Cal.4th 930, 944.)
II.
A.
Section 1170.12, subdivision (b), part of the Three Strikes law enacted by the electorate, provides in pertinent part: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law ... a prior conviction of a felony shall be defined as: flQ (1) Any offense defined in subdivision (c) of Section 667.5 as a violent felony or any offense defined in subdivision (c) of Section 1192.7 as a serious felony in. this state. . . . None of the following dispositions shall affect the determination that a prior conviction is a prior felony . . . : [H] . . . [H] (B) The stay of execution of sentence.” (Italics added; see also § 667, subd. (d) [legislative version].)
Defendant contends that the Three Strikes law cannot properly be interpreted to permit separate strikes to be imposed for offenses that in a prior proceeding were determined to have been committed as part of an indivisible transaction, committed against a single victim, and as to which it was concluded that imposition of separate punishment for each offense would constitute multiple punishment proscribed by section 654. Because the trial court implicitly found in the 1980 proceeding that section 654 precluded the imposition of punishment on the count involving assault with intent to commit murder (having determined that the offense was part of the same transaction that gave rise to the residential burglary count), and stayed the execution of sentence on that count, defendant urges this court to hold that the trial court erred in counting as strikes the convictions for both the residential burglary and the assault with intent to commit murder.
In support of his contention, defendant relies upon this court’s decision in People v. Pearson (1986) 42 Cal.3d 351 [228 Cal.Rptr. 509, 721 P.2d 595] [29]*29(Pearson). In Pearson (decided eight years prior to the 1994 enactment of the Three Strikes law), the defendant committed an act of sodomy on each of two children. For each act, he was convicted of two offenses—sodomy with a child under fourteen years of age (§ 286, subd. (c)), and lewd conduct (§ 288, subd. (a)). The trial court imposed sentence on the lewd conduct convictions, but stayed sentence on the sodomy convictions so as to prevent the defendant from being punished twice for the same act. (§ 654.)
In affirming the judgment of the trial court, we explained in Pearson: “In the case at bar the trial court . . . stayed execution of sentence on each of the sodomy counts, the stays to become permanent on completion of the sentence on the lewd conduct counts. The question remains whether defendant can be subjected to future enhancements based on all four of his convictions in this case. We conclude that he cannot. Any subsequent sentences imposed on defendant can be enhanced on the basis of the convictions for which he served a sentence; but convictions for which service of sentence was stayed may not be so used unless the Legislature explicitly declares that subsequent penal or administrative action may be based on such stayed convictions. Without such a declaration, it is clear that section 654 prohibits defendant from being disadvantaged in any way as a result of the stayed convictions.” (42 Cal.3d at p. 361, italics added.)
As is indicated by the italicized portion of the quoted passage, the court in Pearson explicitly acknowledged that even when multiple punishment for separate offenses has been barred under section 654 in an earlier proceeding, the Legislature is free to authorize the designation of such prior felony convictions as separate priors for purposes of determining the appropriate sentence following a subsequent conviction.
The parties in the present case dispute whether, in enacting the Three Strikes law, the Legislature spoke with sufficient clarity to invoke the proviso set forth in Pearson. In addressing this issue, the trial court observed: “I thought the new Three Strikes law said that all other laws notwithstanding this will be how you sentence. And if you have a conviction, it didn’t matter whether the other court stayed it or what it did. [I]f there was a felony conviction, ... it didn’t matter whether you went to prison. It didn’t matter whether you had good conduct for five years. It didn’t matter whether ... all your counts were in the same case, but the two felony convictions would count for the Three Strikes law. I thought that was clear.” (Italics added.)
. The Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court’s conclusion, explaining: “Appellant presents us with 24 pages of briefing as to why the statute is [30]*30ambiguous. We repeat the foremost rule of statutory construction: ‘ “ ‘Where the statute is clear, courts will not “interpret away clear language in favor of an ambiguity that does not exist.” ’ ” . . {People v. Coronado [(1995)] 12 Cal.4th [145,] 151 [citation].) We need go no further than the language used in the Three Strikes law and need not indulge in any analysis based upon the various principles that are used in instances where the language and intent of a statute are unclear. We must conclude, based upon the plain language of the statute, that the Legislature and the voters through the initiative process clearly intended that each conviction for a serious or violent felony counts as a prior conviction for sentencing purposes under the Three Strikes law, even where the convictions were based upon conduct against a single victim committed at the same time with a single intent, and where pursuant to section 654 the defendant was punished for only a single crime. (Cf. People v. Askey (1996) 49 Cal.App.4th 381, 386 [56 Cal.Rptr.2d 782]; People v. Superior Court {Arevalos) (1996) 41 Cal.App.4th 908 [48 Cal.Rptr.2d 833]; People v. Allison (1995) 41 Cal.App.4th 841, 844 [48 Cal.Rptr.2d 756].)”
We agree with the Court of Appeal’s conclusion that the electorate through the initiative process adequately invoked the proviso set forth in Pearson when it defined the term “prior conviction” in section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1), for purposes of the Three Strikes law. Well-settled rules apply: “When statutory language is clear and unambiguous, there is no need for construction and courts should not indulge in it.” {People v. Overstreet (1986) 42 Cal.3d 891, 895 [231 Cal.Rptr. 213, 726 P.2d 1288]; see also People v. Valladoli (1996) 13 Cal.4th 590, 597 [54 Cal.Rptr.2d 695, 918 P.2d 999] [“Our first step is to scrutinize the actual words of the statute, giving them a plain and commonsense meaning.”]; People v. Jones (1993) 5 Cal.4th 1142, 1146 [22 Cal.Rptr.2d 753, 857 P.2d 1163] [“ ‘ “If the language is clear and unambiguous there is no need for construction ....’” ”]; People v. Ramirez (1995) 33 Cal.App.4th 559, 566 [39 Cal.Rptr.2d 374] [it is unnecessary to look beyond the plain words of the statute to determine intent].)
As we already have noted, section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1), specifies that, for purposes of the Three Strikes law, a prior conviction of a felony is defined as a prior conviction of any offense described as a violent or serious felony in section 667.5, subdivision (c), and section 1192.7, subdivision (c). Significantly, section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1), also includes specific language declaring that “[n]one of the following dispositions shall affect the determination that a prior conviction is a prior felony for purposes of this section: [*]]... [H] (B) The stay of execution of sentence. . . .” (Italics added.)
The courts of this state on occasion have found fault with the imprecise nature of language contained within statutory enactments. We find it difficult, however, to imagine language clearer, or more unequivocal, than that [31]*31set forth above. (Cf. People v. Allison (1995) 41 Cal.App.4th 841, 844, fn. 4 [48 Cal.Rptr.2d 756] [Rejecting a claim that the Three Strikes law embodies a “ ‘brought and tried separately’ requirement,” and observing: “[W]e find that the language of section 667, subdivision (d) is clear and unambiguous . . . .”].) Indeed, the effect of the interpretation urged by defendant would be to replace the phrase “[t]he stay of execution of sentence” (sections 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1)(B), 667, subdivision (d)(1)(B)) with the words “the stay of execution of sentence, except those stays mandated by section 654.” Defendant’s proposed construction of the statute is one to which the plain language is not reasonably susceptible. (See § 4 [Penal Code provisions “are to be construed according to the fair import of their terms.”].)5
In our view, the language of section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1), unequivocally establishes that the electorate intended to qualify as separate strikes each prior conviction that a defendant incurred relating to the commission of a serious or violent felony, notwithstanding the circumstance that the trial court, in the earlier proceeding, may have stayed sentence on one or more of the serious or violent felonies under compulsion of the provisions of section 654.
Defendant contends that because section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1), does not refer specifically to the suspension or stay of sentence under the compulsion of section 654, the Three Strikes law is not sufficiently clear to overcome the general rule of Pearson. We cannot agree. As noted above, section 1170.12, subdivision (b), specifically provides in its introductory clause that a strike for purposes of the Three Strikes law “shall be defined” as set forth in the subdivision “[notwithstanding any other provision of law . . . .” (Italics added.) The subdivision also provides explicitly that a stayed or suspended sentence is not exempt from qualifying as a strike (§ 1170.12, subd. (b)(1)(B)), a provision that is not limited to sentences stayed or suspended for purposes other than those set forth in section 654. In view of the clear language contained within section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1), enacted after Pearson, we believe this provision reasonably must be interpreted to mean that separate strikes must be counted even if, in a prior proceeding, the sentence on a serious or violent felony conviction was stayed or suspended pursuant to section 654.
Defendant suggests that such a reading of section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1)(B), would overrule established judicial precedents, and encourage [32]*32prosecutors to “overcharge” defendants. On the contrary, it is defendant’s argument in this regard that is misconceived. Pearson clearly recognized that the Legislature is free to adopt a sentencing scheme that abrogates the holdings of certain judicial decisions pertaining to the sentencing of recidivists. In enacting their respective versions of the Three Strikes law, the Legislature and the electorate accomplished precisely that.
Defendant contends, and the dissent correctly recognizes, that the term “stay” arises in a number of contexts other than stays granted under section 654. (See, e.g., § 1170.1, subd. (d); Cal. Rules of Court, rule 447 [stay permitted where term imposed exceeds statutory limits]; People v. Karaman (1992) 4 Cal.4th 335, 341 [14 Cal.Rptr.2d 801, 842 P.2d 100] [temporary stay of sentence to permit defendant to assist his family in moving to a new residence].) Yet this circumstance does not advance defendant’s position. To the contrary, it emphasizes the great significance we should accord to the use of broad language by the electorate and the Legislature to exclude all stays of execution of sentence, without qualification or exception. (§§ 1170.12, subd. (b)(1)(B), 667, subd. (d)(1)(B).) In view of the statute’s general, all-encompassing language, and the variety of contexts in which a stay may be granted, the electorate was not required to enumerate specifically each and every type of stay it intended to override. Defendant concedes as much, observing that “To create an exception [to section 654], the other statute need not refer to section 654 explicitly.” (See People v. Hicks (1993) 6 Cal.4th 784, 791-792 [25 Cal.Rptr.2d 469, 863 P.2d 714] [holding that the Legislature was not required to cite section 654 in section 667.6, subdivision (c), in order to demonstrate an intent to override the general provisions contained within section 654]; see also People v. Ramirez, supra, 33 Cal.App.4th 559, 573 [Holding, with regard to section 667, subdivision (e), that “A statute which provides that a defendant shall receive a sentence enhancement in addition to any other authorized punishment constitutes an express exception to section 654.”]; People v. Powell (1991) 230 Cal.App.3d 438, 441 [281 Cal.Rptr. 568] [a case predating enactment of the Three Strikes law, holding that language contained in Health and Safety Code section 11370.2, authorizing “ ‘double punishment’ ... ‘in addition to any other punishment authorized by law,’ ” prevailed over the proscription against double punishment contained within section 654, even though section 654 was not mentioned in the statute].)
In sum, in seeking to exclude section 654 from the scope of section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1)(B), defendant fails to accord_proper deference to the latter’s broad language—“[notwithstanding any other provision of law” and “[t]he stay of execution of sentence.” (Italics added.) Nor does defendant attempt to distinguish the judicial decisions, cited above, that have [33]*33upheld the Legislature’s power to override section 654 in specific circumstances by enactments that do not cite the statute explicitly.
B.
Even if it were necessary to look beyond the plain language of the applicable statute, we would reach the same conclusion regarding the proper interpretation, of section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1), in light of the statute’s history, and the general legislative purpose and objectives underlying the Three Strikes legislation. Past cases establish that ballot arguments accompanying an initiative may be considered in attempting to ascertain the electorate’s intent in adopting the measure. (Romero, supra, 13 Cal.4th 497, 528.) The ballot arguments accompanying the Three Strikes initiative provision included the following comments: “[Serious or violent] [convictions [committed] before 1994 ... are counted as strikes.” (Ballot Pamp., argument in favor of Prop. 184, as presented to the voters, Gen. Elec. (Nov. 8, 1994) p. 36; see also id., Analysis by the Legis. Analyst, at p. 33 [“If the person has two or more previous serious or violent felony convictions, the mandatory sentence for any new felony conviction ... is life imprisonment. . . .” (Original italics.)].) Although defendant contends that prior convictions may be counted as strikes if, and only if, sentence on these convictions was not stayed in a previous criminal proceeding pursuant to section 654, nowhere is such intent evidenced in the ballot arguments that accompanied the initiative, or in the Legislative Analyst’s analysis.
Similarly, an analysis of Assembly Bill No. 971, 1993-1994 Regular Session (the bill that, upon enactment, became the legislative version of the Three Strikes law), prepared by the staff of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, which was before the committee when it considered this legislation on February 17, 1994, stated: “This bill does not contain any requirement that the prior offenses be separate. Thus, a single act of robbery of three people in a store could result in a sentence of 25 years to life. Likewise, one case with two counts of a serious felony would subject the defendant to a life sentence for any future felony.” (Sen. Com. on Judiciary, Analysis of Assem. Bill No. 971 (1993-1994 Reg. Sess.) as amended Jan. 26, 1994, p. 9, first set of italics added.) In addition, in comparing Assembly Bill No. 971 with other comparable sentencing bills then pending before the Legislature, the Senate Committee on Judiciary analysis states that, whereas one of the other bills “requires that the prior convictions be on ‘separate occasions’ ” and another bill “calls for ‘separate convictions’ and defines them as meaning. that the second crime was committed after the first conviction occurred,” “[Assembly Bill No.] 971 and the [Three Strikes] initiative do not require that the prior convictions be separate in any way.” [34]*34(Id. at p. 10, italics added.) Nothing in the analysis prepared for the committee suggests that the bill contained an exception for prior convictions as to which sentence was stayed pursuant to section 654.6
Although section 1170.12, subdivision (b)(1), does not refer explicitly to section 654, its broad reference to “stay of execution of sentence” reasonably includes stays under section 654. This type of stay frequently is used in sentencing for serious felony convictions. Defendant defies logic in suggesting that the electorate and the Legislature intended to reference only some types of stays, but not others, in drafting this exception. If only certain types of stays were intended to be included, the electorate or the Legislature could have so indicated. (Cf. People v. Superior Court (Himmelsbach) (1986) 186 Cal.App.3d 524, 536, fn. 8 [230 Cal.Rptr. 890] [Rejecting a contention that the language of section 12311, prohibiting ‘“suspension of execution’ of sentence,” precluded a stay under section 654, observing that the two terms are distinct “terms of art” and that “[t]he Legislature could have expressly prohibited a ‘stay’ of execution . . . , but it did not.”].)
Defendant contends that there is “no rational basis” for a person accused of having committed residential burglary and assault with intent to commit murder to be considered a “two strike” offender, when those crimes were part of a single act committed against a single victim, committed at the same time with a single intent, and when the crimes were punished as a single crime pursuant to section 654. We disagree. Whether defendant formed the intent to assault his victim prior to his felonious entry into his victim’s residence, or after he encountered her, is less significant for purposes of the Three Strikes law than the fact that his prior criminal conduct yielded two convictions. In contrast to section 654, which is concerned with the appropriate punishment for “[a]n act or omission that is punishable in different ways,” the Three Strikes law has, as its central focus, the status of the defendant as a repeat felon—i.e., whether the defendant proceeded to commit a subsequent felony after already having been convicted of one or more serious or violent felonies. Thus, there clearly was a rational basis upon which the electorate and the Legislature could direct the courts, in cases involving a defendant with two prior felony convictions who thereafter [35]*35commits a subsequent felony, to count each prior felony conviction as a strike, in effect declining to extend the leniency previously afforded the defendant when sentence on a prior felony conviction was stayed under section 654. In the present case, defendant received the benefit of section 654 when he was sentenced for the felonies he committed in 1979; it was only when defendant reoffended after the enactment of the Three Strikes law that he faced the prolonged incarceration of which he now complains. The Three Strikes law provided him with notice that he would be treated as a recidivist if he reoffended. (See People v. Askey (1996) 49 Cal.App.4th 381, 387 [56 Cal.Rptr.2d 782].) He chose to ignore that notice and commit a subsequent felony.7
We similarly reject defendant’s contention that in determining defendant to have suffered two strikes based on his crimes committed in 1979, the trial court acted contrary to the principles of the Three Strikes law. Defendant was convicted of having committed two serious or violent felonies in 1979; the electorate and the Legislature rationally could have determined that he therefore posed a greater threat to public safety than a defendant who had committed only one such offense, such as residential burglary, without the ensuing assault to commit murder. In our view, the electorate and the Legislature rationally could—and did—conclude that a person who committed additional violence in the course of a prior serious felony (e.g., shooting or pistol-whipping a victim during a robbery, or assaulting a victim during a burglary) should be treated more harshly than an individual who committed the same initial felony, but whose criminal conduct did not include such additional violence. The facts of the present case provide a classic illustration of the wisdom of that distinction: In stabbing his victim approximately 20 times, this defendant demonstrated that he posed a far greater threat to public safety than a defendant who has committed a residential burglary without committing such gratuitous violence.
Defendant contends that “dramatic and harsh results” would ensue if this court were to interpret the Three Strikes law as having intended to qualify, as [36]*36a separate “strike,” a prior conviction for a serious or violent felony even if the sentence on that conviction was stayed under the provisions of section 654. In the absence of any constitutional infirmity, however, we are not at liberty to alter the intended effect of a statute on such grounds. (See generally, People v. Askey, supra, 49 Cal.App.4th 381, 387 [rejecting the defendant’s claim that “because all his strikes were incurred in a single prior proceeding,” a sentence of 25 years to life in prison was disproportionate and excessive].) It is worth noting, however, that our decision in Romero, supra, 13 Cal.4th 497, affirms that a trial court retains discretion in such cases to strike one or more prior felony convictions under section 1385 if the trial court properly concludes that the interests of justice support such action. (13 Cal.4th at p. 504.)8
Under defendant’s suggested interpretation, by contrast, a trial court could never count, as more than one strike, multiple prior felony convictions that arose from multiple criminal acts, committed during a single course of conduct waged against a single victim. Thus, under defendant’s view, an individual who had been convicted in a prior proceeding of burglary, kidnapping, and rape based upon a single incident committed against a single victim and who, upon release from prison, committed similar crimes against a new victim necessarily would be treated as a “one strike” offender. In view of the language and objectives of the Three Strikes law, we believe the inflexible result advocated by defendant—precluding a conviction on which sentence was stayed under section 654 from ever being treated as a separate strike—is untenable. Instead, we believe that the statute properly must be interpreted to permit—but not necessarily require—a qualifying prior conviction to be treated as a strike even if the sentence on the conviction has been stayed pursuant to the provisions of section 654.
III.
In view of the unequivocal declaration contained within section 1170.12, (b)(1)(B) (a command that is consistent with the voters’ expressed intent underlying that section), we conclude that the trial court properly found that defendant’s two prior qualifying felony convictions rendered him subject to sentence as a “third strike” offender.
We therefore affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which, as noted previously, affirmed defendant’s judgment of conviction but remanded the [37]*37matter to the trial court for resentencing, because that court mistakenly believed it lacked the authority to strike a prior conviction allegation. (See Romero, supra, 13 Cal.4th 497, 529-532.) We express no opinion as to how the trial court should exercise its discretion under section 1385.
Kennard, J., Baxter, J., and Brown, J., concurred.