In Re Wolfson

180 P.2d 326, 30 Cal. 2d 20, 1947 Cal. LEXIS 146
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedApril 29, 1947
DocketCrim. 4757
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 180 P.2d 326 (In Re Wolfson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Wolfson, 180 P.2d 326, 30 Cal. 2d 20, 1947 Cal. LEXIS 146 (Cal. 1947).

Opinions

SCHAUER, J.

By application for relief through the writ of habeas corpus petitioner attacks the adjudication that he is an habitual criminal, punishable under section 644 and related sections of the Penal Code. We have concluded that petitioner is an habitual criminal twice previously convicted and “shall be deemed to be imprisoned for life and shall be eligible for release on parole after he shall have served a minimum term of seven calendar years.” (Pen. Code, § 3048.5, ad. Stats. 1945, ch. 934, § 4.)

It appears that petitioner was charged with the primary offense of grand theft, allegedly committed on or about August 3, 1943, and with three prior convictions of felony, as follows: “Entering and Larceny” in Pennsylvania in 1913, for which he allegedly served a term of imprisonment “in a penal institution”; “Larceny and Receiving Stolen Goods” in Pennsylvania in 1930, for which he allegedly served a term “in the State Prison”; “Forgery” in New Jersey in 1923, for which he allegedly served a term “in the State Prison.” Petitioner pleaded guilty to the primary crime, denied the 1913 prior conviction, and admitted the 1930 and 1923 prior convictions as charged. The trial court found that petitioner had suffered the 1913 prior conviction. It rendered its judgment of conviction of the primary offense, recited the three prior convictions suffered by petitioner, and declared that petitioner “is adjudicated to be an habitual criminal.” It is such determination of status that petitioner attacks.

[23]*23Respondent concedes and (it appears from the transcript of the proceedings at time of sentence) the trial court recognized that the prior conviction of forgery (New Jersey, 1923) could not constitute a part of the basis of an adjudication of habitual criminality because when petitioner committed the primary offense (August 3, 1943) the applicable California statute (Pen. Code, § 644, as am. Stats. 1941, ch. 106, § 10) did not so provide. Petitioner contends and respondent denies that the 1913 and 1930 Pennsylvania convictions do not conform to the requirements of section 644 of our Penal Code and that petitioner, therefore, is not subject to punishment as an habitual criminal twice previously convicted. These conflicting contentions raise the issues which we must resolve.

The pertinent provision of section 644 of the Penal Code (as am. Stats. 1941, ch. 106, § 10) is that “(a) Every person convicted in this State of any felony who shall have been previously twice convicted upon charges separately brought and tried, and who shall have served separate terms therefor in any State prison and/or Federal penitentiary, either in this State or elsewhere, of the crime of . . . burglary, . . . grand theft, . . . feloniously receiving stolen goods, . . . shall be adjudged an habitual criminal and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life.” Section 668 (Stats. 1927, p. 1065) provides (now, as in 1943) that “Every person who has been convicted in any other state, government, or country, of an offense which, if committed within this state, would be punishable by the laws of this state by imprisonment in the state prison, is punishable for any subsequent crime committed within this state in the manner prescribed in sections 644, 666 and 667, and to the same extent as if such prior conviction had taken place in a court of this state.”

A prior conviction under the law of a sister state can support a California adjudication of habitual criminality only if the minimum adjudicated elements of the foreign offense meet the minimum elements (as defined by the California statute in effect on the date of the commission of the foreign crime) of a California offense which was enumerated in section 644 on the date of the commission of the primary (California) crime. (In re McVickers (1946), 29 Cal.2d 264, 278 [176 P.2d 40]; In re Seeley (1946), 29 Cal.2d 294, 299 [176 P.2d 24] ; In re Harincar (1946), 29 Cal.2d 403, 404 [24]*24[176 P.2d 58] ; earlier California cases are collected in 82 A.L.R. 357; 116 A.L.R. 216-217, 218; 132 A.L.R. 97, 99.) Where an adjudication of habitual criminality is attacked through application for habeas corpus it is now settled that this court will look to the judically noticed law of the sister state

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Bluebook (online)
180 P.2d 326, 30 Cal. 2d 20, 1947 Cal. LEXIS 146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-wolfson-cal-1947.