In Re McDonald

The petitioner, a prisoner confined in the state prison at Represa, this state, claiming that thus he is being illegally restrained of his liberty by the warden of said prison, asks, by this petition for a writ of habeas corpus, that he be discharged from such restraint and restored to his liberty.

The petition shows that the petitioner, having previously been duly convicted in the superior court of Los Angeles County of a felony and sentenced by said court to a term-of five years in said state prison, was, in pursuance of said judgment of conviction and sentence, duly delivered into the custody of the warden of said prison on the thirteenth day of February, 1915; that, in the month of August, 1916, the petitioner, then a prisoner in said prison under the judgment above mentioned, was assigned by the prison authorities, upon the requisition of the department of engineering of the state of California, to employment at Susanville, Lassen County, in the work of constructing and improving the highway system of the state of California, said order of assignment to such employment having been made under and in pursuance of the provisions of an act of the legislature of the state of…