Prosecutors University #4: Habeas Corpus

From Karen Read to the Supreme Court, habeas has been in the news lately

By Brett Talley and Alice LaCour

It was the year 1215, and the king of England had come to Runnymede to make peace with a group of rebels who threatened his rule. The rebels had agreed to peace, but there was a price, one that would have been thought unimaginable only a few years before. The king would sign a document limiting his own power. That document, which came to be known as the Magna Carta Libertatum, enshrined certain liberties that are now considered fundamental. One of those was the right of habeas corpus.

Habeas corpus translates to “you should have the body.” In legal terms, it means that a person held in custody can ask a court to issue an order—a writ—demanding that the executive produce the person to a judge to determine if their arrest and detention are legal. The writ of habeas corpus is now considered so fundamental it is only mentioned in the Constitution in terms of when it can be suspended—only in the case of rebellion or invasion such that public safety requires it.

Karen Read’s petition for habeas corpus was defined by a three-judge panel of the federal First Circuit of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review it.

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