Ex Parte Chambers

In the return to this application for a writ of habeas corpus appear three warrants of arrest in proper form which it is claimed by the sheriff of San Joaquin County justify his detention of petitioner. The first two were issued by a justice of the peace, based upon verified complaints charging two separate offenses of perjury, and the third is a bench warrant upon an indictment, also for perjury, found by the grand jury of said county.

As to the warrants issued by the said justice, the contention of petitioner is as follows: “No preliminary examination has been held upon either charge, neither does it appear that the officers whose duty it is to conduct such preliminary examination intend to hold a preliminary examination upon either charge, as four months and twenty days have elapsed since petitioner was deprived of her liberty upon said charges, during which time she has repeatedly requested that preliminary examination be held, all of which requests have been ignored. While such process was at first lawful, she has certainly become entitled to a discharge by reason of the failure of the officers to follow the plain mandate of the law in the premises. (Pen. Code, sec. 1487,…