Beaty

Monte Dean Beaty appeals from an order by which he was admitted to probation after he had waived a jury and the court had found him guilty of petty theft with a prior felony conviction.

The offense was committed on December 22, 1976, and the probation order was rendered on May 9, 1977. Penal Code section 667, the enactment under which appellant was charged and found guilty, was repealed by Statutes 1976, chapter 1139, operative July 1, 1977. On June 28, 1977, the Legislature passed Assembly Bill No. 1150 (Stats. 1977, ch. 296), amending Penal Code section 666 to reinstate as a felony appellant’s crime of petty theft with a prior burglary conviction. Although the latter enactment contains a provision that it shall be operative July 1, 1977 (Stats. 1977, ch. 296, § 2), the bill was not signed by the Governor until July 7, 1977 (see 1977-1978 Assem. Semifinal History 554). Of course, a legislative bill does not become law until it has been signed by the Governor or the Governor’s signature has been dispensed with in the manner authorized by the Constitution (Cal. Const., art. IV, § 10). Thus upon the coming into operation on July 1, 1977, of Statutes 1976, chapter 1139, the…