In Re Boyce

SHENK, J.—In

this proceeding the petitioner, Charles Howard Boyce, seeks a writ of habeas corpus while confined in the state prison at Soledad under a 1957 judgment of conviction of burglary. It is contended that, because he was denied the right of counsel at the time he was sentenced, his present confinement is illegal.

The attorney general, in behalf of Lawrence E. Wilson, superintendent of the prison at Soledad, has filed a return consisting in part of excerpts from the clerk’s minutes in the criminal proceedings.

(People

v.

Charles Howard Boyce, No. 8186,

Kern County Superior Court.) It appears from

[700]

the minutes that on the 20th day of November, 1957, the petitioner entered a plea of guilty while present in court with his counsel, and that on November 27, 1957, the petitioner, through his counsel, applied for probation. The application for probation was denied on December 18,1957, and it further appears from the minutes of that day that the “defendant was duly informed by the Court of the complaint filed against him [and] ... of his arraignment and plea of guilty in Municipal Court under the provisions of section 859a of the Penal Code.

“The defendant was then asked if he had any legal cause to show why judgment should not be pronounced against him, to which defendant replied that he had none. And, no sufficient cause being shown or appearing to the Court, thereupon the Court rendered its judgment [sentencing petitioner to prison for the term prescribed by law]. . . .”

The attorney general concedes in his return that the petitioner was not represented by counsel when sentenced.

It was held in the case of

In re Roberts,

40 Cal.2d 745 [255 P.2d 782], that a defendant is entitled to counsel when judgment is pronounced and sentence imposed, and that a deprivation of that right is a violation of article I, section 13 of the Constitution.

*