Huff

The People of the State of California appeal from an order granting respondent, Wade Hamilton Huff, partial relief in his petition for habeas corpus arising from the following factual background.

On March 25, 1960, following a conviction by way of a plea of guilty to a violation of section 11500 of the Health and Safety Code, 1 respondent was sentenced to state prison. At the same time the trial court also found three priors which had been charged to be true. Two of the prior convictions had been for violations of the same section of the Health and Safety Code. As a consequence respondent’s sentence was indeterminate but with a minimum of two years and a maximum of twenty years.

Thirteen years later in 1973 respondent alleging by way of a petition for habeas corpus irregularities in the process by which his prior convictions had been found true sought to set aside that result. A hearing was held on September 7, 1973. The record of respondent’s original trial showed that a jury trial had been waived in respect of the priors but indicated nothing to show that there had been a waiver of a nonjury trial. The trial court on the petition for habeas corpus found that there…