In Re Huewitt

This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

The petitioner was held upon two charges. Since the filing of this petition the second complaint was dismissed. We have to consider only the first proceeding.

The petitioner was charged in the Justice’s Court of Eureka township, Humboldt County, with the offense of having possession of intoxicating liquor. To this accusation he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a fine of $400, for the nonpayment of which he was committed to the county jail one day for every unpaid dollar thereof. The memorandum of this judgment, which was entered in the justice’s docket, recited that the defendant should be punished by “a fine of four hundred dollars, or serve a term of six months in the county jail of the county of Humboldt.” Prom the stipulation of facts which was filed in this proceeding it appears that the judgment and order of commitment, which were actually made and signed by the justice, provided that the defendant should “pay a fine of four hundred dollars, and in case said fine be not paid that . . . (he) be imprisoned in the county jail of the county of Humboldt, State of California, until the fine be duly satisfied, in the…