People v. Bible

PETERS, P. J.

This is an appeal from a trial court order denying a verified petition for a writ of error

coram nobis.

The petition, which was filed in December of 1954, alleges appellant’s arrest, trial, conviction, and sentence (on August 13, 1952) for robbery. Then, in most general terms, it is alleged that appellant prepared his notice of appeal to

[67]

this court, and his attorney also promised to perfect the appeal, but “through no fault of the petitioner’s he was deprived of his right to appeal”; that “evidence which should have been presented in open court was concealed, suppressed by wrongful persuasion of extrinsic deliberate fraud which was not known by your petitioner”; that “he was convicted on false perjured testimony known to have been false against him by the prosecution”; that his “attorney refused to present the facts to the court which was his duty to prove in open court trial”;- that the trial court committed error in several unspecified respects; that “A fair trial was impossible by the inflammatory conspiracy of the District Attorney”; and that he was prevented in some unspecified way from presenting his main defense.

All that appellant presented to the trial court was this petition containing these most general charges. There were no affidavits filed or other evidence offered. The petition does not allege why the notice of appeal was not filed, nor that public officials were responsible for the nonmailing

•

what evidence was concealed or suppressed, nor by whom or in what manner it was suppressed; what testimony was false or perjured, or how petitioner knows that it was false or perjured; what facts his attorney did not present to the court; what petitioner’s main defense was, or how he was prevented from presenting it; or with whom the district attorney is supposed to have conspired.

Under such circumstances the trial judge was justified in denying the petition. The writ of error

coram nobis

is a limited writ, available only where no other remedy exists, aimed at reaching errors of fact extrinsic to the record. It cannot be used to review errors of fact or of law that can be reviewed on an appeal. These principles are elementary and frequently have been stated by the courts. (See discussion and cases 12 Cal.Jur.2d 551, § 1 et seq.)