People v. Superior Court

By a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed on October 17, 1951, Caryl Chessman, an inmate of San Quentin State Prison whose appeal from 17 judgments of conviction was pending, sought relief from allegedly illegal conditions of imprisonment which assertedly interfered with his representation of himself.1 On December 18, 1951, this court affirmed the judgments, two of which imposed the death penalty. (People v. Chessman, 38 Cal.2d 166 [238 P.2d 1001].) The subject matter of Chessman’s petition for habeas corpus has no relevancy whatsoever to the proceedings at the trial which resulted in…