In Re Knaesche

THE COURT.

At a regular meeting of the state board of prison terms and paroles held on March 24, 1936, it was ordered that petitioner, a prisoner in the state prison at San Quentin, be released on parole into the custody of the former warden of said state prison, the order to become effective on April 15, 1936. Petitioner was released accordingly, and on June 12, 1936, said board changed the conditions of the parole by directing that petitioner “leave the United States of America, never to return”, and ordered the state parole officer to arrange for petitioner’s expatriation. Before such arrangements were completed, however, and on July 1, 1936, the Governor of California, of his own motion, made and signed an executive

ex parte

order cancelling and revoking said parole and directing that petitioner be returned to the state prison; and on July 2, 1936, pursuant to said executive

[669]

order, petitioner was apprehended and redelivered into the custody of the warden of said state prison. Challenging the legality of the Governor’s order of revocation, petitioner in January, 1937, applied to and obtained from the Supreme Court a writ of

habeas corpus,

which was made returnable before the Superior Court in and for the County of Marin, and in March, 1937, after a hearing before said superior court, petitioner was remanded to the custody of the warden of said state prison. Thereupon petitioner instituted the present proceeding in

habeas corpus

in this court.

It is clearly within the power of the Governor, as well as the parole board, to revoke paroles; but it has been the statutory law of the state for many years that no parole shall be revoked “without cause, which cause must be stated in the order” of revocation. It was so declared in 1915 (Stats. 1915, p. 981), and again in 1929 (Stats. 1929, p. 1930), and notwithstanding the parole statutes have been amended or reenacted from time to time, the particular provision above referred to has never been altered or changed.

The ground upon which the Governor’s order of revocation was based was, as stated therein, that “it appears from telegrams received from the judge of the superior court before whom the prisoner was tried and convicted, the district attorney and the sheriff of the county from which the prisoner was sentenced, that no written or other notice of such meeting (of March 24, 1936) to consider the granting of such parole to such prisoner was received by said officers of" said county, or any of them, and . . . while the records in the office of the clerk of said (parole) board contain carbon copies of such written notices dated February 1, 1935, there is no further or any other record or evidence that such notices were actually sent”.