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Habeas Corpus |
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A writ of habeas corpus, from the Latin meaning roughly “you should deliver the body,” is a directive from a judge instructing a person who is detaining another to bring the detainee to a specified place at a specified time for a specified purpose. That is usually done as a protection for the detainee and to avoid illegal incarceration. Such a hearing does not address the question of guilt or innocence, but simply determines if due process has been ensured.
Habeas corpus has its roots in English common law, and was specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution (text) (Article 1, Section 9) along with the conditions under which it might be suspended. Most state constitutions also have a provision guaranteeing habeas corpus.
While considering how to construct a Bill of Rights in 1788, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison and as one of the points, considered the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus:
Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? The parties who may be arrested, may be charged instantly with a well defined crime; of course, the judge will remand them. If the public safety requires that the government should have a man imprisoned on less probably testimony, in those than in other emergencies, let him be taken and tried, retaken and retried, while the necessity continues, only giving him redress against the government, for damages. Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law, have been worthy of that suspension.
The most notable suspension of habeas corpus occurred in 1861 when Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation suspending the right in certain parts of Maryland. He was deeply concerned about keeping Maryland, a slave state located immediately north of Washington, D.C., in the Union. A challenge was mounted to this action in the Merryman case (1861).
Carpenter, Habeas Corpus in the Colonies
... Documentation * Added May 18, 2003 18 HABEAS CORPUS IN THE COLONIES THE writ of habeas corpus has been regarded as one of the important safeguards of personal liberty, and the struggle for its possession has marked the aHABEAS CORPUS IN THE COLONIES THE writ of habeas corpus has been regarded as one of the important safeguards of personal liberty, and the struggle for its possession has marked the ahabeas corpus has been regarded as one of the important safeguards of personal liberty, and the struggle for its possession has marked the advance of ...
http://www.dinsdoc.com/carpenter-1.htm
Texas in 1864 - Suspension of Habeas Corpus
... under the confederate constitution, to suspend "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it;" Congress must, of course, judge, at their peril, of the existing habeas corpus, when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it;" Congress must, of course, judge, at their peril, of the existing necessity ...
http://www.adena.com/adena/usa/cw/cw170.htm
The Corpus Christi Massacre
... Link - Proceso Magazine El artículo en español (PDF format - 1.2 MB) The Corpus Christi Massacre Mexico's Attack on its Student Movement, June 10, 1971 by Kate Doyle When Luis Echeverría Alvarez was sworn in as President of Mexico on December ...
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB91
