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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.

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State : Washington

623 results

In the matter of the application of Bernard Patrick Morris for a writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: April 7, 1917
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: suspicion of draft evasion
  • Petition outcome: Unknown
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

Unknown

  • Earliest record date: November 7, 1884
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: cause unspecified
  • Petition outcome: Unknown
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

Habeas Corpus of Myrtle Johnson for F.E. Wright against Frank Wright and Mattie Smails

  • Earliest record date: April 28, 1912
  • Petition type(s): Interpersonal: child custody
  • Petition outcome: Writ allowed
  • Fate of bound party: Exhibits withdrawn

Habeas Corpus of Ah Bow against Claude Bannick, Chief of Police

  • Earliest record date: September 8, 1912
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: cause unspecified
  • Petition outcome: Writ dismissed
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the Matter of the Application of James Carpenter for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: July 28, 1880
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: assault and battery
  • Petition outcome: Unknown
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the matter of the application of Tonka Bajlo for a writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: April 15, 1913
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: deportation | Carceral: immigration | Carceral: prostitution
  • Petition outcome: Unknown
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the Matter of the Application of Anthony Han for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: October 4, 1884
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: wrongful imprisonment
  • Petition outcome: Writ allowed
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the matter of the application of Wa Kim for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: June 13, 1889
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: immigration
  • Petition outcome: Writ denied
  • Fate of bound party: Remained in custody | deported

In the matter of the Application of Ling Quan, Lue Tue and Lee Lung for a writ of habeas corpus

  • Earliest record date: May 11, 1888
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: immigration
  • Petition outcome: Writ allowed
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the Matter of the Petition of Albert H. Young and Kamasaburo Sugiura, alias B.D. Sugiura, aliens, for WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS.

  • Earliest record date: August 21, 1913
  • Petition type(s): Carceral | carceral: Violation of White Slave Traffic Act | Carceral: immigration
  • Petition outcome: Writ denied
  • Fate of bound party: Remained in custody | deported

In the matter of the application for writ of Habeas Corpus of H. W. Hull

  • Earliest record date: April 21, 1884
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: keeping a house of ill repute | Carceral: refusal or inability to pay fine
  • Petition outcome: Writ allowed
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the matter of the application of Nam Choey and 12 other men for writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: July 6, 1888
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: immigration
  • Petition outcome: Unknown
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the Matter of the Application of Samuel Gowen and Donald Webster for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: February 24, 1883
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: assault | Carceral: refusal or inability to pay fine
  • Petition outcome: Writ allowed
  • Fate of bound party: Released from custody

In the matter of the Application of George F. Vanderveer, as next friend of Antoni Karachun, for a writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: October 26, 1923
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: desertion
  • Petition outcome: Unknown
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the matter of the application of M. A. Walker for a writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: August 27, 1885
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: murder
  • Petition outcome: Writ allowed
  • Fate of bound party: Released from custody

In re Ah Sing and Ah Yoel

  • Earliest record date: October 25, 1873
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: tax
  • Petition outcome: Writ allowed
  • Fate of bound party: Released from custody

A. N. Jones v. Territory of Washington

  • Earliest record date: April 21, 1869
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: cause unspecified
  • Petition outcome: Unknown
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the Matter of the Application of Mrs. Lee Sing Wot for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: April 6, 1889
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: immigration
  • Petition outcome: Writ denied
  • Fate of bound party: Remained in custody

In the matter of the application of John W. Brennan for writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: February 1, 1924
  • Petition type(s): Carceral: forging of post office money orders
  • Petition outcome: Writ denied
  • Fate of bound party: Remained in custody

In the matter of the application of John Dougherty for a writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: February 11, 1874
  • Petition type(s): Carceral
  • Petition outcome: Writ allowed
  • Fate of bound party: Released from custody

In the matter of the Application of George W. Anderson for a writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: October 1, 1889
  • Petition type(s): Carceral
  • Petition outcome: Unknown
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown

In the Re-Application of Minnie Smith for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

  • Earliest record date: August 3, 1886
  • Petition type(s): Unknown
  • Petition outcome: Unknown
  • Fate of bound party: Unknown
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