In re Harris

In 1940 when he was 14 years old Jack R. Harris was charged with murder in the San Luis Obispo Justice Court. The court suspended proceedings and certified the case to the juvenile court. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 700, *878 subd. (m).) 1 After a hearing at which the juvenile court took evidence and examined Harris, it found him an “unfit subject” for juvenile proceedings and remanded him to the justice court. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 734.) 2 After a preliminary examination the justice court held him to answer for murder. Harris was not represented by counsel in either the juvenile court or the justice court. 3

The district attorney filed an information in the superior court charging Harris with murder, and that court appointed counsel for him. Thereafter he pleaded guilty. The criminal proceedings were suspended, and Harris was hospitalized for six years as a sexual psychopath. In 1946, the superior court sentenced him to state prison for life, but failed to fix the degree of the crime as required by Penal Code, section 1192.

In these proceedings Harris attacks the judgment of conviction by two petitions for a writ of habeas corpus. He filed the second petition to invoke the decision…