Cases
Habeas petitions described a broad range of carceral, institutional, and interpersonal confinement over the long nineteenth century, including those used to demand due process, resist enslavement, challenge child removal and reservation confinement, avoid deportation, present child custody claims and protest child marriage, and to challenge institutionalization and detention in private and state institutions. As a legal mechanism borrowed from British common law and guaranteed as a civil right in US federal and state constitutions, habeas provides a lens on a diverse community of legal actors.
Our encoding practice allows us to identify petitions in these three categories and to indicate where those categories overlap. In addition to these three general categories, our team has identified the specific carceral charge being challenged as well as the particular forms of institutional and interpersonal confinements being questioned.
You may also browse or search petitions by location and/or jurisdiction to learn more about the myriad complaints petitioners brought before judges in Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington between 1812 and 1924. Each case entry includes a full citation, a summary, links to people with a role in the case, a list of other people named, and any sites of significance. Visitors wanting access to full case files can contact the cited repository for information about obtaining copies. Those without institutional affiliations may request image scans from Dr. Jagodinsky directly. The Glossary defines the attributes used to structure data from the habeas petitions. The Code Book explains the relational structure of the data and functionality of the database website.
Featured story: The Habeas Corpus and Divorce Proceedings of Katie Mayes
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- R. S. “Government and Protection of Indian Teachers” Title 28, Chapter 1, page 363, Sections 2071 and 2072 1
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- , (Sister Superior of the Saint Thomas Orphanage) 1
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- Bennett, George A. (sheriff) 1
57 results
Download JSON Download CSVState of Nebraska on the relation of Lille Walton, Cora Walton, Ernest Glenn Walton, Ledonia Walton, and Bessie Walton and Petition of Hiatt Elmer Walton, father of said children, for habeas corpus
- Earliest record date: March 4, 1915
- Petition type(s): Institutional: child custody
- Petition outcome: Writ denied
- Fate of bound party: Remained in custody
Charles Sitzman vs. L. C. Oberlies, A. E. Allyn, Catherine Worley, as the Board of Commissioners of State Institutions of the State of Nebraska and Doctor S. J. Stewart, Superintendent Institution for Feeble Minded Youth
- Earliest record date: April 28, 1921
- Petition type(s): Institutional: child custody
- Petition outcome: Writ denied
- Fate of bound party: Remained in custody
In the matter of the application of Flow Morton and Leona P. Morton husband and wife, in behalf of their minor children William LaVearl Morton and Gladys Lucile Morton
- Earliest record date: April 4, 1923
- Petition type(s): Institutional: child custody
- Petition outcome: Writ denied
- Fate of bound party: Remained in custody
In the matter of the application of James E. Warden for a writ of Habeas Corpus
- Earliest record date: June 30, 1915
- Petition type(s): Institutional: child custody | Interpersonal: child custody
- Petition outcome: Writ denied
- Fate of bound party: Remained in custody
In the Matter of the Application of Herold James Miller, by Grace Miller, his next friend, for a writ of Habeas Corpus
- Earliest record date: October 26, 1905
- Petition type(s): Institutional: child custody | Interpersonal: child custody
- Petition outcome: Writ dismissed
- Fate of bound party: Unknown
In the matter of the application of Goldie Abbott for a writ of habeas corpus
- Earliest record date: June 10, 1912
- Petition type(s): Institutional: child custody
- Petition outcome: Writ allowed
- Fate of bound party: Released from custody
In Re Application of Russell and Nettie Watson for a Writ of Habeas Corpus
- Earliest record date: October 29, 1920
- Petition type(s): Institutional: child custody
- Petition outcome: Writ denied
- Fate of bound party: Remained in custody
