People v. Ward

On March 19, 1945, defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole after being convicted of a kidnapping in which the jury found that the victim suffered bodily harm. (Pen. Code, § 209.) Four years later, in May of 1949, he moved the trial court to annul, vacate and set aside that portion of the judgment denying him the possibility of parole. That motion was denied on the grounds that it was “groundless and without merit.” Defendant appeals.

From the clerk’s transcript the following facts can be ascertained: On November 18, 1944, the defendant was charged by…