In Re Application of Tassey

Petitioner was sentenced to confinement in the state prison at San Quentin upon plea of guilty to the crime of robbery committed October 11, 1926. Petitioner is a minor of the age of fifteen years and under sixteen years. At the time he appeared before the superior court he made known to the court his age, but the court nevertheless proceeded with the ease as though he were an adult, without determining the defendant’s age and without the defendant’s offense having been previously submitted to the juvenile court.

Apparently the petitioner passed through the justice’s court without the provisions of section 6 of the Juvenile Court Law being invoked. This section would require the magistrate to suspend the proceedings and certify the minor, being under eighteen years, to the juvenile court. There is no similar section of the act prescribing what the procedure shall be in case the question of age is first raised in the superior court instead of the justice’s court, but in such case it would seem to us proper that the superior court follow substantially the same procedure as provided for justices’ courts in section 6. It is provided in section 4d of this act as follows: “No person…