In re McMonigle

Petitioner was found guilty of the murder of Thora Chamberlain, a 14-year-old school girl. He is confined in the State Prison of San Quentin under a sentence of death following the jury’s return of its verdict without recommendation. Upon automatic appeal to this court (Pen. Code, § 1239(b)), the judgment of conviction was affirmed. (People v. McMonigle, 29 Cal.2d 730 [ 177 P.2d 745 ].) The cited opinion sets forth in considerable detail the facts surrounding the commission of the offense charged, and it would serve no purpose to narrate those matters again here. At petitioner’s request, the trial court appointed counsel to conduct petitioner’s defense there, and this court appointed other counsel to represent petitioner on the appeal.

Petitioner now attacks the propriety of the judgment of conviction in this proceeding on habeas corpus. This is the third of a series of such petitions filed by petitioner in propria persona in the state and federal courts since this court’s affirmance of the judgment against him on February 18, 1947. (People v. McMonigle, supra, 29 Cal.2d 730 .) The first petition (Crim. No. 4787), which was made on March 5, 1947, and which was brief, was…