32 N.W.2d 723 | Mich. | 1948
The petitioner herein, Earl Reno, seeks, in a habeas corpus proceeding with ancillary writ of certiorari, to obtain his release from imprisonment in the State prison for southern Michigan at Jackson. The petition and the returns to the writs disclose that on March 11, 1930, petitioner was arraigned in the circuit court of Arenac county on an information charging the offense of breaking and entering a store building in the nighttime with intent to commit larceny therein, in violation of 3 Comp. Laws 1929, § 16948. Petitioner pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve a term of not more than 15 years nor less than 7 years, with a recommendation of the minimum term. Following such sentence he was committed to the State prison, from which he escaped in January, 1935. Approximately 11 years later petitioner was taken into custody in the State of Washington and was returned to Michigan. In February, 1946, he was sentenced by the circuit court of Jackson county to an additional term of 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years following conviction on a charge of escaping from the prison. The record indicates that petitioner pleaded guilty to this charge, and that the information alleged the offense as a second felony.
In August, 1947, petitioner filed in the circuit court of Arenac county a petition to vacate the conviction and sentence in that court, to set aside the plea of guilty, and to discharge petitioner from custody. For reasons indicated by the trial judge in an opinion dictated from the bench, said motion, and also an accompanying petition for a writ of habeas corpus, were denied. Thereafter the instant proceeding was instituted in this Court. It is the petitioner's theory that the circuit court of Arenac county *499 was wholly without jurisdiction to accept his plea of guilty to the charge against him and that in consequence the sentence imposed was void. He further contends that the conviction for escaping prison was improper, and, hence, that the sentence imposed for that offense was unlawful.
The claim that the sentence imposed by the circuit court of Arenac county was void for want of jurisdiction is based on the preliminary proceedings in justice court. The complaint against petitioner failed to state whether the act of breaking and entering occurred in the nighttime or in the daytime. The warrant followed the language of the complaint. Both were defective in that they failed to allege properly the specific offense charged.People v. Frencavage,
Petitioner did not move to quash the information nor did he seek in any other manner to call attention to the situation of which he now complains. On the contrary, he pleaded guilty to an information that correctly charged the offense, his plea was accepted, and the sentence followed. Under the facts disclosed by the record it must be said that petitioner waived the defect in the complaint and warrant. He had the right to waive an examination on the charge to which he pleaded guilty. The judicial admission of his guilt constituted such waiver.
The question at issue here has been considered by this Court in prior decisions, which are in accord *500
with the conclusion indicated. In People v. Tate,
"When defendant was re-arraigned in the circuit court, at his request the plea of not guilty theretofore entered in his behalf was set aside, and thereupon defendant, accompanied by his counsel, entered a plea of guilty. The law has long been settled in this State that after proper arraignment in the circuit court and a plea of guilty or a plea of not guilty by defendant the prior proceedings had before an examining magistrate cannot be questioned; nor can defendant complain even though there has been no examination. In the instant case, as above noted, defendant had been arraigned in the circuit court, pleaded guilty and sentence was imposed, prior to the motion from the denial of which this appeal was taken."
In People v. Jury,
"When defendant was arraigned and informed against he pleaded guilty to the charge made against him in the information and thus waived any defect in the prior proceedings."
A similar question was involved in People v. Turner,
"In the case now before us an information complete in form and substance, which was verified by the prosecuting attorney, who was competent to verify it, was filed. To that information the respondent did not object, but pleaded thereto not guilty. We think this was a waiver of the want of regularity in justice's court, and gave the circuit court jurisdiction to try the case."
In the earlier case of People v. Jones,
"Had this motion been made before pleading not guilty to the information, it must have prevailed. But as the statute expressly authorizes a defendant to waive an examination, we think it clear, as held by the majority of the Court in Washburn v.People,
See, also, People v. Hanifan,
The case of In re Rhyndress, supra, on which petitioner relies, is distinguishable from the instant case in that the defect there involved was in the information, rather than in the prior proceedings. The same situation existed in People v.Frencavage, supra, and in People v. Eddinger, supra. In the instant case, however, the sufficiency of the information is not questioned. Specific discussion of other matters raised by petitioner is unnecessary, such matters having been covered above in substance.
The relief sought by petitioner is denied and the writs are dismissed.
BUSHNELL, C.J., and SHARPE, BOYLES, REID, NORTH, DETHMERS, and BUTZEL, JJ., concurred. *503