Ex parte Overend

On the fifteenth day of June, 1898, in the superior court of the city and county of San Francisco, sitting with a jury impaneled for the purpose, one Minnie Campbell was being tried upon a charge of having obtained money by false pretenses from the petitioner herein, Alfred Overend. On the forenoon of that day the petitioner herein, Overend, was called as a witness for the prosecution on the said trial, and declined and refused to answer certain questions asked him by the prosecution, upon the ground that the answers would tend to convict him of a felony. The first question which he refused to answer upon that ground was, “Do jrou know this defendant, Minnie-Campbell?” Other questions were asked him, such as, “Do you know the codefendant Lewis?” and, “Did you meet the deiend *202 ant Minnie Campbell and William Lewis, in this city and county, on the sixth day of December, 1897?” The petitioner refused to answer these questions and refused to give any further testimony in the ease upon the ground above stated. Thereupon the court adjudged him guilty of contempt for not answering the said questions, and, as a punishment, ordered that he be committed to the county jail until 2…