People v. Williams

The People have appealed from orders of the superior court (1) denying reinstatement of a criminal complaint, under Penal Code section 871.5, against defendant Andrew Maynard Williams (Williams) and (2) granting Williams’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus, thus causing his return to a federal prison in Missouri without trial of grand theft charges pending in Alameda County, California.

*128 California, the United States, and other states of the nation are parties to an “Interstate Agreement on Detainers.” In California, the agreement is codified as Penal Code section 1389 (section 1389). Section 1389 is lengthy, but its here relevant portions may reasonably be condensed to the following.

It provides that a prison inmate in any of its jurisdictions, against whom criminal charges are pending in another such jurisdiction, may make demand on the latter jurisdiction that he be tried on such charges. Upon such a demand “he shall be brought to trial on such charges within one hundred eighty days” after the demand shall have been received. If he shall not have been brought to trial within the 180-day period, “the court shall enter an order dismissing the [charges] with…

I concur in the result only.

A petition for a rehearing was denied September 17, 1987. Racanelli, P. J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. Respondent’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied December 17, 1987.

The People have appealed from orders of the superior court (1) denying reinstatement of a criminal complaint, under Penal Code section 871.5, against defendant Andrew Maynard Williams (Williams) and (2) granting Williams's petition for a writ of habeas corpus, thus causing his return to a federal prison in Missouri without trial of grand theft charges pending in Alameda County, California.

California, the United States, and other states of the nation are parties to an "Interstate Agreement on Detainers." In California, the agreement is codified as Penal Code section 1389 (section 1389). Section 1389 is lengthy, but its here relevant portions may reasonably be condensed to the following.

It provides that a prison inmate in any of its jurisdictions, against whom criminal charges are pending in another such jurisdiction, may make demand on the latter jurisdiction that he be tried on such charges. Upon such a demand "he shall be brought to trial on such charges within one hundred eighty days" after the demand shall have been received. If he shall not have been brought to trial within the 180-day period, "the court shall enter an order dismissing the [charges]…