Earnest L. Jacobson v. People of the State of California and Louis S. Nelson, Warden

Appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree in a trial commencing on May 27, 1964, in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. He was sentenced to death. The conviction was affirmed in People v. Jacobson, 63 Cal.2d 319 , 46 Cal.Rptr. 515 , 405 P.2d 555 (1965). Certiorari to the Supreme Court was denied. Jacobson v. California, 384 U.S. 1015 , 86 S.Ct. 1954 , 16 L.Ed.2d 1036 (1966) . The Governor of California commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

After exhausting state remedies, appellant sought relief by habeas corpus in the court below. Appellant makes five contentions:

(1) The admission of two illegally obtained confessions at appellant’s preliminary hearing, deprived the Superior Court of jurisdiction to try appellant;

(2) The State trial court failed to determine the voluntariness of the two confessions before submitting them to the jury;

(3) The two confessions were obtained in violation of his right to counsel and to remain silent, and it was prejudicial error to admit them into evidence at the trial;

(4) The California Supreme Court determined the voluntariness of appellant’s two confessions without the benefit of a complete record;

(5) Reversible…