Matter of Application of Winston

This is a petition for a writ of habeas

corpus. The prisoner is held by the sheriff of Alameda County by virtue of a commitment issued by a justices’ court after a judgment of conviction, which has been affirmed on appeal by the superior court. The imprisonment is alleged to be unlawful for the sole reason that the complaint upon which the prosecution was founded was insufficient to confer jurisdiction on the justices’ court. So much of the complaint as is material here reads as follows:

“Boland Webb being duly sworn, deposes and says, that H. B. Winston did, in the city of Berkeley, county of…