In Re Higgins

The petitioner in this habeas corpus proceeding was convicted in the justice’s court of the city of San Diego of the crime of vagrancy, and was sen tenced to imprisonment in the county jail for the term of six months. The clerk made out a commitment and handed it to a police officer for delivery to the sheriff, who received it within two or three days after its issuance. Immediately following the sentence, the clerk of the justice’s court informed petitioner that he could return the next day and that he then could commence serving his sentence. Instead of complying with this arrangement, petitioner left San Diego. A year and five months later he was arrested in Los Angeles by police officers of the latter city. He was no't taken into custody under any warrant, but was informed by the arresting officers that he was wanted in San Diego on a charge of burglary or embezzlement. Petitioner was taken by the officers to San Diego and there delivered into the custody of the sheriff of San Diego County, by whom he is now being held under the commitment issued out of the justice’s court in execution of the sentence for vagrancy.

Even if the clerk of the justice’s court were acting under…