In Re Dabney

Israel Dabney petitions for a writ of habeas corpus claiming that both his conviction and his augmented penalty as a second narcotics offender were obtained by means of a constitutionally invalid prior conviction. At petitioner’s' trial the People introduced before the jury an unconstitutionally obtained prior conviction to prove his guilt by impeaching petitioner’s testimony and by demonstrating his knowledge that a packet alleged to be in his possession contained heroin. We conclude that the admission of that prior conviction was erroneous in the light of People v. Coffey (1967) 67 Cal.2d…