Sampson

Statement of Facts and Case

At about 2 a.m. on October 25, 1984, appellant stabbed two men in the Salida Club, then fled the state. One victim received a slash wound in the chin and throat area which required sutures; the other, stabbed in the back, sustained spinal cord damage requiring several months of hospitalization and suffers from various continuing symptoms.

On December 5,1984, appellant was convicted in Arkansas of first degree battery and first degree escape, and sentenced to two concurrent ten-year terms.

On July 3, 1985, appellant apparently sent to the Stanislaus County District Attorney and the superior court written notice of his place of imprisonment and a request for final disposition of pending charges stemming from the Salida Club incident pursuant to Penal Code section 1389, article 3. Article 3 requires that once such notice is received by the prosecuting authority, a defendant shall either be brought to trial within 180 days (less any necessary or reasonable continuance), or charges will be dismissed with prejudice. The district attorney had no record of the date the notice was received, but it clearly arrived sometime before September 16, 1985,…