Case Summary

On August 4, 1864, Walla Walla county policeman W.J. Tompkins got a letter from an A. Lavor in Montana asking him to arrest a J.M. Burks and William Moore. He did, and incarcerated the men in the city jail. On October 3, 1864, the men petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, saying that there was no evidence proving that they had committed a crime and a formal complaint against them had never been filed. Judge E.P. Oliphant ordered the men released, stating that they were innocent.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Carceral

Petition subtype(s)

• Cause unspecified

Sites of significance

• Walla Walla County Jail (Walla Walla, Washington)

Outcome

Writ allowed

Fate of bound party

Released from custody

Case Citation

Walla Walla County Government, Clerk, Territorial Court Civil/Criminal Case Files, 1860-1889, No. 288.

Source material(s)

Journal

Length of case file

5 or fewer pages

Repository(s)

• Washington State Archives, Eastern Regional Branch (Cheney, WA) (Cheney, Washington)

Tag(s)

• Police officer

People

• Burks, J.M. (petitioner)
• Burks, J.M. (bound party)
• Moore, William (petitioner)
• Moore, William (bound party)
• Oliphant, E.P. (Ethelbert Patterson Oliphant) (judge)
• Lavor, A. (authority ordering detention)
• Tompkins, W.J. (respondent)
• Tompkins, W.J. (holding party)

• Additional parties

  Sexton, B.N. [clerk]