George Robert Petersen v. Walter Dunbar, Director of the California Department of Corrections

Seeking discharge in habeas corpus appellant challenges the validity of a felony sentence imposed upon him by the California state courts. He contends that such sentence amounts to an increase in a previously executed sentence and constitutes double jeopardy. At issue is the power of the state courts to impose a sentence of imprisonment following revocation of probation when, as a condition of probation, the defendant had already suffered jail detention.

Appellant, having pleaded guilty to the crime of uttering a bad check (California Penal Code, § 476a), was, on October 6, 1958, placed on probation for a period of two years conditioned on his making restitution and spending the first four months of his probationary period in road camp. In June and again in August, 1960, he was arrested and jailed for drunkenness, and in October, 1960, based upon these probation violations, probation was revoked. Appellant was then sentenced to imprisonment in a state prison for the term provided by law.

The crime under California law is a felony/misdemeanor, the character of the crime depending upon whether sentence is to state prison or to county jail. Here the sentence imposed in October,…