In Re De Beau Carr Ex Rel. Steve

ADAMS, P. J.

On May 26,1945, Arthur De Beau Carr, an attorney at law, filed in the Superior Court of Siskiyou County an application on behalf of Gorham Owl Steve “for the Writ of Error Coram Nobis, Writ of Error Coram Vobis and the Writ of Habeas Corpus,” alleging therein that said Gorham Owl Steve was imprisoned and restrained of his liberty by the warden of the state prison at Represa. His imprisonment was alleged to be in violation of .the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and section 13 of article I of the Constitution of California, for the alleged reasons that his conviction of murder of the first degree was “had and obtained through duress, fraud and mistake of fact”; that the sheriff had told defendant that he should plead guilty to the charge else he would hang; that defendant’s attorney, Mr. Collier, had told defendant that he was charged with manslaughter and upon pleading guilty would be sentenced to prison for five years, and that the district attorney had agreed thereto, and had acted in such manner as to indicate the truth of Mr. Collier’s representation ; that Mr. Collier had told defendant that he should plead guilty to the crime of manslaughter else he would hang, and that the district attorney had agreed not to demand the death

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penalty; that the defendant, “not knowing, understanding or realizing the distinction between murder and manslaughter allegedly pleaded guilty to murder when in fact he thought he was pleading guilty to manslaughter ’ ’; that defendant, an Indian, could neither read, write, speak nor understand English but was nevertheless denied an interpreter; that the information and amended information were read to defendant but he was not presented with a copy of same nor was it translated to him; that defendant did not plead guilty; that he was not properly defended by counsel; that the trial judge was guilty of an abuse of discretion in that he failed to swear an interpreter for defendant; that defendant was denied a preliminary hearing by his attorney; that defendant is feeble-minded or at least of low mentality, and is deaf and insane; and that defendant was found guilty of first degree murder upon perjured testimony of his wife and brother-in-law; and that no appeal had been taken from the judgment of conviction. The prayer of the petition was that defendant “be restored to his liberty, granted a fair trial upon the merits, and/or for any, all and such other relief” as to the court should seem proper in the premises.