In re Carlson

Bay J. Carlson is presently confined at the California Conservation Center at Susanville, serving a sentence for violation of section 11500 of the Health and Safety Code (possession of narcotics), with a prior conviction, upon a plea of guilty, for violation of section 11721 of the Health and Safety Code, a misdemeanor.

Carlson has served in excess of ten years, the maximum sentence which could have been imposed absent the prior misdemeanor conviction. (Health & Saf. Code, § 11712; repealed Stats. 1959, ch. 1112, p. 3193.) He seeks release by writ of habeas corpus on the ground that “the prior misdemeanor conviction of section 11721, Health and Safety Code is of no effect on the present sentence since the United States Supreme Court in the case of Robinson v. California (1962) 370 U.S. 660 [ 82 S.Ct. 1417 , 8 L.Ed.2d 758 ], held section 11721 Health and Safety Code unconstitutional. ...”

It first appears that petitioner has misconstrued the holding of Robinson v. California, supra, 370 U.S. 660 . The United States Supreme Court there held that section 11721 of the Health and Safety Code 1 inflicted a cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth…