Ex Parte Heacock

The petition shows that petitioner is held by the sheriff of Mendocino county by virtue of “a commitment and an order and warrant of commitment made by a justice of the peace of Ten Mile River Township in said county purporting upon its face to hold this petitioner to answer upon the charge of murder. ” It is averred that petitioner “has been committed on said criminal charge without reasonable or probable cause . . . which will more fully appear from a complete transcript of the evidence and the testimony taken at the examination before said justice of the peace as a committing magistrate, which is hereunto annexed, hereby referred to and made a part hereof.”

It is made by statute a ground of discharge “where a party has been committed on a criminal charge without reasonable or probable cause.” (Pen. Code, sec. 1487, subd. 7; Ex parte Sternes, 82 Cal. 245 , [ 23 Pac. 38 ].) The term “probable” has been defined to mean “having more evidence for than against; supported by evidence which inclines the mind to believe, but leaves some room for doubt.” (Bain v. State, 74 Ala. 38 [citing Webster’s Dictionary].) The meaning of the expression “probable cause,” .as used in the federal…