Political Quotes

Ed Bryant: “Literally, ``habeas corpus'' means ``you have the body.'' It started out in the 1800s, as I remember reading, where…”

On the recordFebruary 8, 1995
Literally, ``habeas corpus'' means ``you have the body.'' It started out in the 1800s, as I remember reading, where people who were wrongfully convicted, or even perhaps kept in jail without a trial, used that as a mechanism to have a hearing to get out of jail. What has developed over the years, though, has been a system of, I believe, abuse by people in the jail who filed habeas corpus petition after petition over a period of years, with the net effect of being able to, particularly in death penalty cases, to delay the implementation of their death sentence effectively.
Said by
Ed Bryant
Tennessee
Source
govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the implications of habeas corpus petitions in the context of death penalty cases.

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