Conway v. California Adult Authority

• Decision Date: 08 December 1969
• Docket Number: No. 40,40
• Parties: James CONWAY, Petitioner, v. CALIFORNIA ADULT AUTHORITY et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

396 U.S. 107

90 S.Ct. 312

24 L.Ed.2d 295

James CONWAY, Petitioner,

v CALIFORNIA ADULT AUTHORITY et al.

No. 40.

Argued Nov. 12, 1969.

Decided Dec. 8, 1969.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 12, 1970.

See 396 U.S. 1030, 90 S.Ct. 544.

Charles S. Ralston, San Francisco, Cal., for petitioner.

Arlo E. Smith, San Francisco, Cal., for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

The petition for habeas corpus in this case, which was filed in the District Court for the Northern District of California and which was prepared by petitioner pro se, attacked the constitutionality of petitioner's confinement in the state prison system pursuant to the California Indeterminate Sentence Law.¹ Petitioner recited that he was convicted in 1952 on two counts of first-degree robbery and was given consecutive sentences of not less than five years each, with no maximum prescribed by law. California law provides that where no maximum term is set, the punishment shall be life imprisonment subject to the power of the California Adult Authority to 'determine and redetermine' the length of time that a prisoner shall be required to serve. Cal.Penal Code §§ 671 (1955), 1168, 3020 (1956).

Petitioner asserted that in June 1961 he appeared before the Adult Authority for parole consideration, as he had done on a yearly basis during his confinement. According to petitioner, during that appearance the members of the Authority evinced an intention to extend his term beyond March 1962, the date that had been tentatively set for his discharge, solely because petitioner refused to admit his guilt.² Shortly after the appearance, the Adult Authority rescinded its earlier action scheduling petitioner for release in 1962; no new date for release was fixed, and petitioner has remained in custody continuously since that time.

The petition for habeas corpus stated flatly that the appearance before the Authority in June 1961 was for routine parole consideration; petitioner claimed that he had been free from infractions of prison rules for at least a year prior to the appearance. He further declared that he was given no reason for the redetermination of his sentence, and received no notice or hearing concerning any possible basis for such action. In conclusion, petitioner stated that, 'obviously, the only reason for this action was to coerce petitioner to plead guilty and not challenge his conviction after being released on discharge.'

Respondents filed no response to the petition in the District Court. That court denied the writ without a hearing, in a brief order stating that no federal questions had been presented. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a certificate of probable cause to appeal for the reasons expressed by the District Court, and petitioner applied to this Court for a writ of certiorari. On the facts recited by petitioner, we granted certiorari to consider his contention that his privilege against compulsory self-incrimination had been infringed by the prison authorities. 393 U.S. 1062, 89 S.Ct. 720, 21 L.Ed.2d 705 (1969).

In its brief on the merits, respondents have brought to our attention a series of prison documents, whose accuracy has in no way been drawn into question by petitioner, that cast petitioner's detention in a light wholly different from that shed by his petition for certiorari. These documents show that in December 1960...