Lawrence E. Wilson, Warden v. William Eugene Porter

This is an appeal by the warden of the California State Prison at San Quentin from an order of the district court granting appellee’s application for a writ of habeas corpus and impliedly invalidating the state court judgment of conviction under which appellee was being held in appellant’s custody.

On May 11,1961, appellee was convicted by a California court sitting without a jury for possession of a firearm by a felon and for possession of a concealed dagger. The writ was applied for and granted on the ground that the evidence essential to appellee’s conviction was obtained unlawfully in violation of appellee’s constitutional rights.

The relevant facts are not contested. About 3 a. m. on the morning of August 16, 1960, two officers of the Ontario, California, police department stopped a car in the 500 block of West Holt Street in Ontario for a traffic violation. While so engaged one of the officers noticed appellee drive by heading west on West Holt Street. Approximately twenty-five minutes later the officers again saw appellee driving west in the 1400 block of the same street. On this second occasion they followed appellee’s car a short distance and then turned on their red…