Edison R. Womack v. Walter E. Craven, Warden

Appellant, an inmate of Folsom State prison, sentenced as an habitual offender and serving various consecutive sentences, petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus which was denied without hearing by the district court. Essentially he claims that a conviction on November 18,1965, in the California State Superior Court in Yolo County, for robbery and kidnapping, adjudged him an habitual criminal based upon prior convictions in 1938 and 1947. His attack is on the 1938 conviction out of Kern County for robbery in the first degree. The 1965 conviction was affirmed in People v. Womack (1967) 252 Cal.App.2d 761 , 60 Cal.Rptr. 870 . A petition for writ of habeas corpus to the State courts resulted in denial of relief, In re Womack, (1968) 262 Cal.App.2d 73 , 68 Cal.Rptr. 352 .

The district court denied relief on a petition for a writ on January 18, 1969, relying on the opinion in People v. Womack, supra. It did not cite In re Womack, supra, which had then been decided.

We assume for argument and for the purpose of decision, that appellant requested counsel at the time of the 1938 conviction, but that counsel was not supplied to him. We do this, notwithstanding the fact that the District…