Howard R. MacOn v. Walter E. Craven, Warden, Folsom State Prison

Macon appeals from an order dismissing his habeas corpus petition without an evidentiary hearing.

Macon, a State of California prisoner, was charged with the possession for sale of narcotics in violation of section 11500.5 of the California Health and Safety Code. On September 22, 1967, he entered a plea of guilty to section 11500 of the same Code, a lesser included offense. Thereafter, the state court suspended sentence and ordered him civilly committed to the California Rehabilitation Center for narcotics addicts pursuant to section 3051 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code. In April 1968, the Superintendent of the Rehabilitation Center reported that Macon had been rejected by the Center for his “excessive criminality,” based on events antedating his plea. Macon’s motion to withdraw his plea was denied and on November 8, 1968, he received a mandatory five-to-twenty-year sentence.

Macon made four claims in the district court, three of which have no merit. The fourth claim is that his guilty plea had been induced by the district attorney’s promise that he would be committed to the Rehabilitation Center. The district court denied a hearing on this issue in apparent…