Jones

Upon his plea of guilty to a charge of forgery committed while on parole, and admission of three prior felony convictions, respondent, on May 25, 1933, was sentenced to the state prison and adjudged an habitual criminal. On December 3, 1935, and upon motion of defendant, the trial court, purporting to act under a 1935 amendment to section 644 of the Penal Code (the habitual criminal statute), made an order modifying the judgment by deleting therefrom all reference to the defendant as an habitual criminal. The amendment to the section authorized a trial court, in exceptional cases, but not later than sixty days after commencement of the imprisonment, to amend a judgment to provide that the defendant is not an habitual criminal. The People appeal from the order.

The sole question presented relates to the commencement of respondent’s life sentence as an habitual criminal, as originally determined in the judgment. If his life sentence as such habitual criminal commenced with the entry of judgment in 1933, then the trial court was without jurisdiction to amend the same in 1935, for the power to so modify is expressly limited by the 1935 amendment (supra) to a period of sixty days…