People v. Gonzales

The appeal is from the judgment of conviction sentencing the defendants to a term of imprisonment in the state prison, the former for a period of fifteen years and the latter for ten years. The only question involved herein is as to the form of the judgment. Appellants contend that under the provisions of section 1168 of the Penal Code (Stats. 1917, p. 665), providing for an indeterminate sentence, the court should not have fixed the term or duration of the punishment. The language of that section is: “Every person convicted of a public'offense, for which public offense punishment by imprisonment in any reformatory or the state prison is now prescribed by law . . . shall be sentenced to be confined in the state prison, but the court in imposing such sentence shall not fix the term or duration of the period of imprisonment.” There is no question that said act of the legislature was in effect at the time the offense herein was committed, and we may add that the constitutionality of said act has been determined by the supreme court in the Matter of the Application of Lee, 177 Cal. 690 , [ 171 Pac. 958 ]. The language as to the form of the sentence is so plain' as not to admit of…