In Re Woo Hah

Petitioner by writ of habeas corpus seeks to be discharged from the custody of the chief of police of Los Angeles City. Several grounds are assigned in his petition, but at the oral argument the only point insisted upon was that the commitment issued was so lacking in its statements of essentials as to make it void; particularly that no offense is described therein. The commitment recited that on the nineteenth day of May, 1917, petitioner was convicted before a police judge of the city of Los Angeles “of the crime of violating poison law, committed in said city of Los Angeles on or about the 18th day of May, 1917.” It is admitted that there is a general statute of the state not contained in any of the sections of the code (Stats. 1907, p. 124, and as later amended [Stats. 1913, p. 692]), whereby the handling of poisonous substances is designed to be regulated and for the violation of different provisions of the act a person is liable to conviction for misdemeanor. The police court of the city of Los Angeles, it is also admitted, has jurisdiction of the offenses created by that statute. The wording in the commitment whereby the offense of which the petitioner was convicted is…