In Re Nakanishi

Petitioner by this proceeding seeks to secure his discharge from the custody of the chief of police of the city of Los Angeles. In his petition for the writ issued herein he set out as ground therefor that no warrant or commitment of any kind had been issued to the chief of police directing his imprisonment, and that he was not held on any warrant of arrest, nor upon suspicion of having committed any public offense. The chief of police made return to the writ, showing that on the nineteenth day of June, 1912, in the police court of the city of Los Angeles, petitioner was adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor and ordered to be imprisoned in the city jail of said city for the term of one hundred and eighty days. The return then recites as follows: “That at said time a representative of your petitioner was present in said court; and under the said order so made and authority of the judgment entered by the said court, your respondent took the body of the petitioner and imprisoned him under the judgment and order of said court. A copy of which said judgment is hereto annexed.” Attached to the return, and over the certificate of the clerk of the police court and the seal of said court, is a…