Wilson

Petitioner Sidney Wilson committed a felony prior to July 1, 1977, for which he was arrested and confined in jail while awaiting trial. He was thereafter convicted of the offense and sentenced to prison under California’s now repealed Indeterminate Sentence Law. Following the state’s determinate sentence law (operative July 1, 1977) and before the high court’s decision in People v. Sage (1980) 26 Cal.3d 498 [ 165 Cal.Rptr. 280 , 611 P.2d 874 ], the superior court ordered that Wilson’s prison term be reduced by allowance of Penal Code section 4019’s conduct credits covering the period, prior to July 1, 1977, he had spent in jail awaiting trial and sentence. For reasons as will appear, that order will be termed by us as the “first order.”

People v. Sage, supra, 26 Cal.3d 498, 509 , footnote 7, holds that “felons sentenced to prison terms under the Indeterminate Sentence Law after January 1, 1948, were not entitled to [the conduct] credits” of section 4019, for presentence jail time served while that law was in effect.

Following announcement of People v. Sage , and after the usual time for appeal or review by extraordinary writ of the superior court’s first order had…