Habeas corpus

“ It is idle to argue that the withholding or suspending of the writ of habeas corpus is an appropriate means of constituting a judicial tribunal. It is a caricature of argument to say, that Congress must create a court in which the whole judicial power is to vest, and at the same time may withhold from that court any of the instruments necessary to the practical exercise of judicial power. ”

“ The greatest number of habeas corpus cases in the federal courts fall into class one. In Ex parte Hawk, supra, we stated the principle which governs these cases: 'Ordinarily an application for habeas corpus by one detained under a state court judgment of conviction for crime will be entertained by a federal court only after all state remedies available, including all appellate remedies in the state courts and in this Court by appeal or writ of certiorari, have been exhausted. ”

“ I do not think a trial which forecloses the basic right to defend, upon the only valid ground available for that purpose, is any less unfair or conclusive as against the office of habeas corpus than one which takes place when the court is without jurisdiction to try the offense, as when the charge is made under an unconstitutional statute or for other reason sets forth no lawfully prescribed offense, or when the court loses jurisdiction by depriving the accused of his constitutional right to counsel. ”

“ Habeas corpus, literally, is a Latin expression meaning "You have the body"; a writ is a written legal command or order. Therefore, a writ of habeas corpus is an official order commanding a person who has another person in custody to produce the body of such person who is being detained before a court; thus, any person arrested or otherwise detained upon suspicion of crime has the right to demand an immediate hearing in court with a view to determine officially whether or not there is adequate ground for his detention. ”

“ If the person therefore who detains any one in custody should think fit to make a return to the writ of habeas corpus, alleging matter sufficient to justify the party's restraint, yet false in fact, there would be no means, at least by this summary process, of obtaining relief. An attempt was made in 1757, after an examination of the judges by the House of Lords as to the extent and efficiency of the habeas corpus at common law, to render their jurisdiction more remedial. ”

“ It relieved their estates from every source of legal oppression. The habeas corpus act, which was some years posterior to it, offered the firmest security to their persons. It produces in a court of justice the body of every prisoner; it makes known the cause of every commitment; and, if an individual has suffered confinement in opposition to the law, though at the command of the king in council, he is restored to his liberty, and has a claim of compensation for the loss and the indignity his affairs and his honour have sustained. ”

“ Try as the majority does to turn habeas corpus into a roving commission of inquiry into every possible invasion of the applicant's civil rights that may ever have occurred, it cannot divorce the writ from a judgment of conviction if that judgment is the basis of the detention. ”

“ For one convicted of violating an illegal order of a selective service board, like one convicted of violating an unconstitutional statute, should be afforded an opportunity at some stage to establish the fact. And where no other opportunity existed, habeas corpus would be the appropriate remedy. [14] But that was an additional reason for allowing the defense in the criminal trial, not a statement that defendants prosecuted under § 11 had an alternative of defending at the trial on the basis of an illegal classification or resorting to habeas corpus after conviction. ”

“ There is no higher duty of a court, under our constitutional system, than the careful processing and adjudication of petitions for writs of habeas corpus, for it is in such proceedings that a person in custody charges that error, neglect, or evil purpose has resulted in his unlawful confinement and that he is deprived of his freedom contrary to law. ”

“ Public justice must, therefore, be defeated, as all will agree, if the error cannot be corrected that the prisoner would be entitled to a discharge on habeas corpus, as every sentence in a criminal case is an entirety, so that if any part of it is unauthorized by law the whole sentence is illegal. ”

“ A writ of habeas corpus is a writ granted by a court, commanding an officer to produce before it a prisoner, in order that the court may inquire into the cause of his imprisonment or detention. If, after such inquiry, it is found that the person is detained for insufficient cause, he is granted his freedom. ”

“ Be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Person or Persons, which shall be delivered or set at large upon any Habeas Corpus, shall at any time hereafter be again imprisoned or committed for the same Offence, by any Person or Persons whatsoever, other than by the legal Order and Process of such Court wherein he or they shall be bound by Recognizance to appear, or other Court having Jurisdiction of the Cause. ”

“ The great and inestimable value of the habeas corpus act of the 31st Charles II. is that it contains provisions which compel courts and judges, and all parties concerned, to perform their duties promptly in the manner specified in the statute. ”

“ The court, on the filing of this petition, issued a rule on the marshal, or on any person in whose custody the prisoners might be found, to show cause why the writ of habeas corpus should not issue for their release. ”

“ In this historic view the proceeding in habeas corpus is analogous jurisdictionally neither to one in rem or quasi in rem nor to the anomalously restricted personal action, as developed in the common law, of trespass to reality. ”

“ Our nation proclaims a belief in the dignity of human beings as such, no matter what their nationality or where they happen to live. Habeas corpus, as an instrument to protect against illegal imprisonment, is written into the Constitution. ”

“ The law of habeas corpus is recognized, by which anyone detained more than twenty-four hours without having his case submitted to the proper authorities may present himself, or be represented by a proxy, before the judge with a complaint, and the judge is bound to investigate the arrest and to decree the liberty of the detained person in case no legal reason for his further detention can be established. ”

“ For otherwise the 'habeas corpus courts could thereby draw to themselves, in the first instance, the control of all prosecutions in state and Federal courts.' To establish a general rule that the courts on habeas corpus, and in advance of trial, should determine every jurisdictional question, would interfere with the administration of the criminal law and afford a means by which, with the existing right of appeal, delay could be secured when the Constitution contemplates that there shall be a speedy trial, both in the interest of the public, and as a right to the defendant. ”

“ I wholly agree that Rule 33 is inapplicable to habeas corpus proceedings. Contrary to my Brother HARLAN, I further agree that federal judges in carrying out their duty to dispose of habeas corpus applications 'as law and justice require,' 28 U.S.C. § 2243, should not be inhibited by inflexibly formalized procedural rules. In getting at the facts in such cases, the district courts should be given wide leeway for 'discretion to exercise their common sense.' Machibroda v. ”

“ Because of the above reasons, the federal courts exercise their habeas corpus jurisdiction where an individual is in the custody of a state in limited types of situations. For example: (1) where all state remedies have been exhausted; (2) where the state remedy is seriously inadequate; [19] and (3) where a state attempts to interfere improperly with the Federal Government.
The third class of cases represents the largest group of situations in which federal courts exercise habeas corpus jurisdiction without the exhaustion of state remedies. ”

“ The fact that there is this force behind a writ is so well understood by the community that occasions for resorting to its use, or indeed to the use of any actual force, are extremely rare. If the process was lawfully issued, it would be useless to resist. If unlawfully, it is easier and safer to seek relief by an injunction, or in case of an arrest, by a writ of habeas corpus. ”