In Re Hays

260 P.2d 1030, 120 Cal. App. 2d 308, 1953 Cal. App. LEXIS 1935
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 21, 1953
DocketCrim. 5077
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 260 P.2d 1030 (In Re Hays) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Hays, 260 P.2d 1030, 120 Cal. App. 2d 308, 1953 Cal. App. LEXIS 1935 (Cal. Ct. App. 1953).

Opinion

DORAN, J.

The records disclose that on January 17,1951, the applicant, Frank Hays, after trial by jury, was found guilty as charged, of manslaughter in the driving of a motor vehicle with gross negligence. The verdict recommended punishment by imprisonment in the county jail. The information charged a former conviction in San Diego County of the crime of robbery, which prior conviction was admitted by the defendant.

On February 8, 1951, a motion for new trial was denied; the proceedings were ordered suspended, and petitioner was granted probation upon the condition that the first eight months of the probationary period be served in the county jail, with good time allowed if earned. Other conditions were imposed which are not relevant to the present controversy.

Under the above probationary condition, and no sentence having been pronounced, Hays was confined in the county jail for a period of about 6 months and 18 days. Thereafter, and on March 26, 1953, probation was revoked on account of defendant’s violation of the terms thereof. A sentence of one year in the county jail was thereupon imposed, and on July 29, 1953, the present writ of habeas corpus was issued by this court.

It is now contended that by reason of the above procedure, petitioner has been committed to a county adult detention facility for a period of more than one year, in violation of section 19a of the Penal Code, which provides that “In no case shall any person sentenced to confinement in a county or city jail, or in a county or joint county penal farm, road camp, work camp, or other county adult detention facility, on a conviction of a misdemeanor, or as a condition of probation, or for any other reason, be committed for a period in excess of one year, provided, however, that the time allowed on parole shall not be considered as a part of confinement.”

The question here presented, as phrased by respondent is, “Does section 19a, Penal Code, authorize a judgment and sentence in the county jail for a period of one year, after and without crediting thereon, a previous period of confinement in the county jail as a condition of probation in the same cause?”

The contention that petitioner has been committed to a county jail in violation of section 19a is based upon what *310 respondent terms a fallacious line of reasoning, namely, “upon a process of including the period of about 6 months and 18 days confinement in the county jail as a condition of probation with the period thus far served (as of July 29, 1953, of about 4 months and 10 days) of the ordered 1 year confinement in the county jail imposed by the judgment and sentence as punishment for the crime after vacation of the order granting probation.” (Respondent’s italics.)

Among other things, the respondent has urged that “the writ (habeas corpus) was applied for prematurely and issued prematurely,” inasmuch as even under petitioner’s theory, the added terms of confinement under probation and under the sentence only total, up to March 29, 1953, the date of issuing the writ, a period of about 10 months and 28 days, in other words, less than, one year; and that therefore there was at that date, no violation of section 19a. However, as noted in petitioner’s closing memorandum, “taking respondent’s figures as correct, applicant will undoubtedly have actually served more than one year by the time this case is decided. The last day of the year would fall on the first or second of September (1953).” That date is now past, and in view of the decision herein, it is unnecessary to further consider this contention.

. There is no serious disagreement in respect to the trial court’s authority to grant probation in the present ease; nor can there be any doubt about the validity of the condition imposed as a part of such probation, namely, that the defendant serve the first eight months of the probation in the county jail.

The general nature of the entire probationary procedure is likewise well settled. As said in In re Martin, 82 Cal.App.2d 16, 22 [185 P.2d 645], “An order placing a defendant on probation, even though it include as a condition a period of detention in the county jail, is not a judgment and sentence. ” There is no finality to an order for probation; it imposes no penalties but is “an act of clemency. ” A defendant has the undoubted right to refuse probation,—a necessary safeguard against the possibility that probationary conditions may be more onerous than sentence. (People v. Frank, 94 Cal.App.2d 740, 742 [211 P.2d 350], citing People v. Billingsley, 59 Cal.App.2d Supp. 845, etc. [139 P.2d 362].)

As pointed out in In re Marquez, 3 Cal.2d 625, 628 [45 P.2d 342], section 19a of the Penal Code, relied upon by *311 petitioner, “must be read and construed as a whole in harmony with other statutes relating to the same general subject matter. ’ ’ In the present situation, this means that section 19a, limiting imprisonment in a county jail to one year, must be interpreted in connection with section 1203 of the Penal Code authorizing the granting of probation, and as a condition thereof, imprisoning the defendant in the county jail.

With these preliminary considerations in mind, it becomes apparent that petitioner’s complaint deals with two separate and distinct concepts which cannot be safely commingled,— namely probation and sentence. The original imprisonment of 6 months and 18 days was a lawful and proper condition of probation which, as hereinbefore mentioned, might have been accepted as it was, or entirely rejected. Having accepted probation, and thus having voluntarily served this period, defendant is hardly in a position to enter an objection thereto. And, had Mr. Hays complied with the other terms of probation, which he did not, then there would have been no further imprisonment. The further imprisonment,—the only jail sentence ever imposed, came about solely by reason of defendant’s violation of probation terms, resulting in revocation of probation. And so, again, defendant is not in a position to complain of the logical and legal consequences.

Neither section 19a of the Penal Code, nor section 1203.2, nor any other statute, provides that time served in a county jail as a condition of probation, shall be deducted from a jail sentence imposed upon revocation of probation, nor considered in reference thereto. Had the legislators intended such a thing, there is no reason to doubt that a definite provision to that effect would have somewhere been incorporated. And in order to approve of the petitioner’s contention, it becomes necessary to read such a provision into the law;—a procedure which judicial tribunals have no authority to resort to.

There is, moreover, a further indication that the legislators did not intend that on revocation of probation and imposition of sentence, the defendant should be given credit for time served in jail as a condition of probation.

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Bluebook (online)
260 P.2d 1030, 120 Cal. App. 2d 308, 1953 Cal. App. LEXIS 1935, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-hays-calctapp-1953.