In re Dick

Petitioner, by this application for the writ of habeas corpus, seeks relief from his confinement in San Quentin Prison under a judgment of conviction on seven counts of issuing checks without sufficient funds (Pen. Code, § 476a), with two prior felony convictions. The judgment was affirmed on appeal and is now final. (People v. Dick, 200 Cal.App.2d 424 [ 19 Cal.Rptr. 317 ].)

The only issue of substance in this collateral attack on the judgment concerns the propriety of the multiple convictions, as felonies, arising out of petitioner’s issuance of a series of checks with insufficient funds. Prior to 1955 the issuance of any one cheek or each subsequent check, regardless of the amounts, constituted violations of section 476a and each violation was a felony. In that year the section was amended by the addition of subdivision (b) to the former language, which was modified in minor respects and designated subdivision (a). (Stats. 1955, ch. 1862, § 1.) The language of subdivision (b), which qualified subdivision (a), has itself been modified in minor respects (Stats. 1957, First Ex. Sess., 1956, eh. 30, § 1; Stats. 1957, ch. 222, § 1), and at the time of the commission of the offenses…