Ex parte Woods

41 P. 796, 5 Cal. Unrep. 149, 1895 Cal. LEXIS 1159

• Court: California Supreme Court
• Decided: September 19, 1895
• Docket: Crim. No. 62
• Status: Published

Opinion

GAROUTTE, J.

Petitioner was charged by information with the crime of burglary. A prior conviction for a like offense was also alleged against him. He pleaded guilty, and the judgment under which he is held recites that “whereas the defendant, John Woods, has been convicted of the crime of burglary in the first degree and a prior conviction of felony, it is ordered that he be imprisoned in the state prison for the term of twenty years.” The judgment, upon its face, is a valid and legal judgment, and one which the court clearly had power to make; but petitioner insists that the minutes of the court taken at the time defendant pleaded, and also when judgment was pronounced, fail to indicate that any evidence was heard tending to show the degree of the crime of which defendant was found guilty. There is nothing in the point. The judgment itself recites that the defendant was convicted of burglary of the first degree; and, conceding that the minutes of the court could be introduced upon this hearing for the purpose of contradicting recitals found in the judgment, still we find nothing in those minutes of a contradictory character. They are silent upon the question, and under such circumstances recitals in the judgment that the petitioner was convicted of the crime of burglary in the first degree must control. We see no ground entitling the prisoner to his discharge. The petition is dismissed, and petitioner remanded.