Gallaher

Upon his arraignment in the superior court on a charge of murdering one Larry Rutherford, petitioner Patrick Kime Gallaher, pursuant to Penal Code section 995, moved to set aside the information. The stated ground was that he had been denied the right to cross-examine his principal accuser at the preliminary examination. Upon denial of the motion by the superior court, he sought relief from this court by the extraordinary writ of prohibition, a practice approved, in a proper case, by Jones v. Superior Court (1971) 4 Cal.3d 660 [ 94 Cal.Rptr. 289 , 483 P.2d 1241 ], and Jennings v. Superior Court (1967) 66 Cal.2d 867 [ 59 Cal.Rptr. 440 , 428 P.2d 304 ].

We issued an alternative writ for the purpose of inquiring into the validity of the superior court’s ruling.

The relevant proceedings of Gallaher’s preliminary examination, before a municipal court judge sitting as a magistrate, will reasonably be condensed to the following.

One Raymond Leader had become involved in the charged offense because of circumstances from which, at least arguably, he might have been deemed an accessory to it. (See Pen. Code, § 32.) At the preliminary examination’s commencement it was represented…