In Re Raymond

I dissent. I am unable to agree with my associates in the conclusion reached by them in the matter of the application for a writ of habeas corpus. It appears from the return to the writ, the affidavit of the clerk to the state board of prison directors, and oral testimony taken at the hearing, that on or about the eleventh day of July, 1912, a riot occurred in the dining-room at the state prison at San Quentin, at a time when the board of prison directors was in session. The convicts supposed to be the ringleaders in the uprising—this petitioner among them—were apprehended, and were at once placed in solitary confinement. The prison remained in a turmoil, and the situation was tense when the board met again the next day. As a matter of precaution, the board met in a room in the building in which the solitary confinement cells were located, and into which those cells opened. All the members of the board and the clerk were present, and the session seems to have been regular in every particular.

The warden of the prison filed a charge, in writing, signed by him as warden, in which the petitioner, with others, was accused of having violated the rules of the prison by engaging in…

Petitioner was received at the state penitentiary at San Quentin about August 25, 1911, under a sentence of ten years for grand larceny. If entitled to the credits for good conduct allowed under section 1588 of the Penal Code, he should have been released February 25, 1918. The petition alleges that during the month of July, 1912, without previous notice and without opportunity of preparing or presenting any defense, he was taken from his cell and led before the board of prison directors, where his credits were forfeited without trial, and that he is accordingly still held in custody by the warden of the .penitentiary. Petitioner' relies on the provisions of section 1588, which grant to a prisoner the credits as a matter of right, subject to forfeiture only “after due proof of the offense and notice to the offender.”

The evidence produced at the hearing in brief is: Petitioner, with some twenty-five other prisoners, was charged with participating in a riot within the prison. The directors met in a room situated in a building where these prisoners had been placed in solitary confinement. One prisoner after another was called before the board and asked to enter his plea. When the…