Leaming v. Municipal Court for San Jose -Milpitas Judicial District of Santa Clara County

[12 Cal3d Page 815] Charged with indecent exposure in a felony complaint alleging three prior convictions of the same offense (Pen. Code, § 314),1 petitioner seeks a writ of prohibition to restrain respondent court from conducting a preliminary hearing. Petitioner contends that indecent exposure is a misdemeanor, regardless of prior convictions. He argues that the provision of section 314 making repeated offenses felonies punishable by imprisonment in state prison for not less than one year was invalidated in its entirety when the indeterminate life-maximum sentence for such offenses was declared unconstitutional in In re Lynch (1972) 8 Cal. 3d 410 [105 Cal. Rptr. 217, 503 P.2d 921]. We deny the writ.