Cosgrove

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction and sentence to life imprisonment by the superior court for the county of Fresno, on a plea of guilty upon a charge of murder. The information was filed March 27, 1917. On April 9, 1917, the defendant was arraigned on the charge and pleaded “not guilty.” On May 3, 1917, “the defendant by his counsel asks and is granted leave to withdraw his plea heretofore entered herein. Defendant now waives time and orally pleads that he is guilty as charged in the information.” On the same day the superior court rendered judgment on the plea of guilty, finding and specifying in the judgment that the crime was murder in the first degree. The evidence before the court upon this finding consisted of the transcript of the preliminary examination in this case and the inquisition of the coroner’s jury. The district attorney made a statement of the facts to the court in substantial conformity to the testimony upon these two hearings, and the attorney for the defendant stipulated as to the correctness of the facts so stated by the district attorney.

Upon December 6, 1919, more than two and a half years after the judgment was rendered, the defendant made…