Frank Sturm v. California Adult Authority, Lawrence E. Wilson, Warden of San Quentin State Prison, California

In March 1957 appellant and a code-fendant were convicted of first degree robbery [Cal.Pen.Code, § 211] and were both sentenced to imprisonment for the term prescribed by law, which is from five years to life. (Cal.Pen.Code, §§ 213, 671, 1168). In 1959 the California Adult Authority, pursuant to Cal.Pen.Code, § 5077, fixed the indeterminate sentences of appellant and his codefendant at six years. Because of an infraction of the prison rules by appellant, the Adult Authority in 1960 rescinded its previous determination of appellant’s term. (Cal. Pen.Code, § 3020). In July 1962, after appellant had again broken prison rules, the Adult Authority redetermined his sentence at a term of ten and one-half years pursuant to Cal.Pen.Code, § 3020. Appellant was released on parole in October 1962, but his parole was cancelled in September 1963; he is now serving his redetermined ten and one-half year term. While appellant remains incarcerated, his codefendant has been discharged after *448 completion of his sentence as originally fixed by the Adult Authority.

Appellant has unsuccessfully sought a writ of habeas corpus in the state courts challenging his continued incarceration. In March 1967…

(concurring) :

No doubt the State of California may adopt a system of indeterminate sentencing and create a non-judicial agency to administer the system without violating the Constitution of the United States. But the existence of this power does not imply a further power in the State to immunize its acts, through its administrative agency, from the strictures of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The judicial imposition of a life sentence upon appellant is no more than a legislatively mandated device for transferring the sentencing function from the State court to the State administrative agency with a grant of jurisdiction over appellant’s person for a period sufficiently long to enable the agency to perform its functions under the State’s indeterminate sentencing law. Use of that device cannot be seized upon as a means to validate whatever action the administrative agency might subsequently choose to take, no matter how seriously the appellant might be injured, and without regard to whether the agency’s action was arbitrary, basically unfair, or invidiously discriminatory.

When the California Adult Authority entered its order of July 3, 1962, refixing appellant’s sentence at ten and…

395 F.2d 446 Frank STURM, Appellant, v. CALIFORNIA ADULT AUTHORITY, Lawrence E. Wilson, Warden of San Quentin State Prison, California, et al., Appellees. No. 22072. United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. December 21, 1967. Rehearing Denied April 5, 1968. Frank Sturm, in pro. per. Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen., John T. Murrhy, Joyce P. Nedde, Deputy Attys. Gen., San Francisco, Cal., for appellee. Before MERRILL, KOELSCH and BROWNING, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM. 1 In March 1957 appellant and a codefendant were convicted of first degree robbery [Cal.Pen.Code, § 211] and were both sentenced to imprisonment for the term prescribed by law, which is from five years to life. (Cal.Pen.Code, §§ 213, 671, 1168). In 1959 the California Adult Authority, pursuant to Cal.Pen.Code, § 5077, fixed the indeterminate sentences of appellant and his codefendant at six years. Because of an infraction of the prison rules by appellant, the Adult Authority in 1960 rescinded its previous determination of appellant's term. (Cal. Pen.Code, § 3020). In July 1962, after appellant had again broken prison rules, the Adult Authority redetermined his sentence at a term of ten and…