People v. Morton

SHINN, P. J.

Lester Sparks was charged in separate counts with six offenses of forgery of fictitious names with three prior convictions and imprisonment therefor. Having pleaded not guilty, he changed his plea when the case was called for trial and pleaded guilty as charged to counts I and II of the information. Trial by jury was duly waived on the issue of the first two prior convictions. The court found the charge of one prior conviction to be untrue and the second to be true. Leave was granted to file an application for probation and the same was filed and denied. Time for sentence

[270]

was waived and on October 18, 1948, sentence was imposed for the term prescribed by law as to counts I and II, the sentences to run consecutively. The remaining counts were dismissed. In March of 1950, Sparks filed a petition in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County for a writ of error

coram nobis

which was heard and denied April 12, 1950. He appeals from the order denying the writ and represents himself on the appeal. We find nothing in the record which would justify the issuance of the writ applied for.

The ease is but another of the many that have recently been presented to the courts by prisoners whose hopes of release have been founded upon a complete misconception of the functions of the writ. In speaking of

coram nobis

the court said in

People

v.

Shorts,

32 Cal.2d 502, 508 [197 P.2d 330] : “. . . the final, affirmed judgment of conviction is conclusive unless set aside upon a ground amounting to, akin to, or in the nature of extrinsic fraud or some other lack of due process, or, as has often been said in substance, upon proof that a fact existed which could not in the exercise of due diligence by the defendant have been proved at the trial, and which, if known then, would have precluded the judgment from being entered. (See

People