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HABEAS CORPUS

Lat. (You have the body.) The name given to a variety of writs, (of which these were anciently the emphatic words,) having for their object to bring a party before a court or Judge. In common usage, and whenever these words are used alone, they are understood to mean the habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, (see infra.) Habeas corpus aet. The English statute of 31 Car. II. c. 2, is the original and prominent habeas corpus act. It was amended and supplemented by St. 56 Geo. III. c. 100. And similar statutes have been enacted in all the United States. This act is justly regarded as the great constitutional guaranty of personal liberty. Habeas corpus ad deliberandum et recipiendum. A writ which is issued to remove, for trial, a person confined in one county to the county or place where the offense of which he is accused was committed. Bac. Abr. “Habeas Corpus,” A; 1 Chit. Crim. Law, 132. Ex parte Bollman, 4 Crancb, 97, 2 L. Ed. 554. Thus, it has been granted to remove a person in custody for contempt to take his trial for perjury in another county. 1 Tyrw. 185. Habeas corpus ad faciendum et recipiendum. A writ issuing in civil cases to remove the cause, as also the body of the defendant, from an inferior court to a superior court having jurisdiction, there to be disposed of. It is also called “habeas corpus cum causa”. Ex parte Bollman, 4 Cranch, 97, 2 L. Ed. 554. Habeas corpus ad prosequendum. A writ which issues when it is necessary to remove a prisoner in order to prosecute in the proper jurisdiction wherein the fact was committed. 3 Bl. Comm. 130. Habeas corpus ad respondendum. A writ which is usually employed in civil cases to remove a person out of the custody of one court into that of another, in order that he may be sued and answer the action in the latter. 2 Sell. Pr. 259; 2 Mod. 198; 3 Bl. Comm. 129; 1 Tidd, Pr. 300. Habeas corpus ad satisfaciendum. In English practice. A writ which issues when a prisoner has had judgment against him in an action, and the plaintiff is desirous to bring him up to some superior court, to charge him with process of execution. 3 Bl. Comm. 129, 130; 3 Steph. Comm. 693; 1 Tidd, Pr. 350. Habeas corpus ad subjiciendum. A writ directed to the person detaining another, and commanding him to produce the body of the prisoner, (or person detained,) with the day and cause of his caption and detention, ad faciendum, subjiciendum et recipiendum, to do, submit to, and receive whatsoever the judge or court awarding the writ shall consider in that behalf. 3 Bl. Comm. 181; 3 Steph. Comm. 695. This is the well-known remedy for deliverance from illegal confinement, called by Sir William Blackstone the most celebrated writ in the English law, and the great and efficacious writ in all mannerof illegal confinement 3 Bl. Comm. 129. Habeas corpus ad testinoandnm. A writ to bring a witness into court, when he is in custody at the time of a trial, commanding the sheriff to have his bodv before the court, to testify in the cause. 3 Bl. Comm. 130; 2 Tidd. Pr. 809. Ex parte Marmaduke. 91 Mo. 250, 4 S. W. 91, 60 Am. Rep. 250. Habeas corpus cum causa. (You have the body, with the cause.) Another name for the writ of habeas corpus ad faciendum et recipiendum, (q. v.) 1 Tidd, Pr. 348, 349.
Habemus optimum testem, confitentem reum. We have the best witness, a confessing defendant. “What is taken pro confesso is taken as indubitable truth. The plea of guilty by the party accused shuts out all further inquiry. Habemus confitentem reum is demonstration, unless indirect motives can be assigned to it” 2 Hagg. Eccl. 315.

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