Stories
Learn more about the sophisticated legal arguments and poignant freedom stories contained in individual petitions that highlight the significance of habeas more broadly as a central chapter in American legal history.
Who (People)
Lucía Martínez: Yaqui Arizona, 1854-1900
Lucía Martínez was born around 1854 in the Rio Yaqui valley of Sonora, Mexico. The borderlands traffic in Mexican and Indigenous slaves made Indigenous women and children particularly vulnerable, and by 1864, Apache slavers had abducted Lucía into the Black River region of central Arizona. Remarkably, the 10 year-old girl escaped, but she was then found by King S. Woolsey, a renowned Indian killer, who was leading an anti-Apache and gold-scouting expedition in the vicinity [...]
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What (Cases)
The Habeas Corpus and Divorce Proceedings of Katie Mayes
On January 26, 1887, Katherine (Katie) Marie Dora Yaeger married Franklin Pierce Mayes in Lincoln, Nebraska. After getting married, they settled on a farm near Emerald, Nebraska with Franklin’s two sons that he had with his first wife, Julia Ann Vaughan. Julia passed away two years prior. Between the years of 1888 and 1901, Katie and Franklin had four sons: John, George, Leroy, and Leslie. They eventually moved to Lincoln and then separated. Despite outlining different reasons for their separation, the couple agreed that they had been separated for several years prior to Katie’s petition [...]
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Vagrancy & Discriminatory Policing
Legislators in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era considered vagrancy a moral failing and made it illegal in order to promote social reform. However, laws against vagrancy were often vague and subjective, making these laws easily misused for profiling. A police officer could choose virtually anyone off the street and arrest them for vagrancy. Those who found themselves wrongfully arrested on charges of vagrancy could petition for habeas corpus. Historic habeas petitions in Douglas County, Nebraska reveal that Omaha police used vagrancy laws for discriminatory purposes [...]
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When (Cases)
Fannie Fowle & Habeas in the Pacific Maritime World
Featured prominently in our collection of Settle petitions, Judge Roger Greene heard a devastating account of abduction, abuse, and confinement from Fannie Fowle on November 21, 1885. Fowle swore that British Captain George Finlayson had taken her hostage from her home in New South Wales, Australia, that she tried to escape his ship in Hong Kong and repeatedly thereafter even though he beat her and called her his slave. Fowle’s horrifying condition only became known after Finlayson’s crew sued him in Seattle’s admiralty court for breach of contract and abusive treatment [...]
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Agnes Smith & Institutional Habeas Petitions in Nebraska’s Eugenic Era
On March 24th, 1921, Agnes Smith’s mother and step-father, Mary and Thomas Foley, filed a petition for habeas corpus on her behalf. The Foleys alleged that Agnes was unlawfully detained at the Institute for Feeble-Minded Youth in Beatrice, NE, under the orders of Superintendent S. J. Stewart. The Foleys explained that in 1914, sixteen-year-old Agnes was committed to the Girl’s Industrial School by the Juvenile Court of Douglas County (Omaha, NE) for unclear causes. Agnes received a two-year commitment, but she remained at the Industrial School for five years and then officials committed Agnes to the Institute for Feeble-Minded Youth against her will [...]
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Where (Locations)
Gussie Burns & the Story of Omaha Women’s Detention Home & Habeas in the Progressive Era
On May 1, 1919, the police arrested Gussie Burns for vagrancy after raiding Flossie Kane's home at 1213 Cass Street, Omaha, Nebraska. The police found two bottles of cocaine in Kane's house and arrested Kane as the keeper of a disorderly house. There were three other women and three men present in the house with Kane during the raid; one of the women was Gussie Burns. The police charged Burns with vagrancy, and the judge convicted and sentenced her to thirty days in jail. After her arrest, a health official, who was most likely male, forced her to submit to a physical examination for venereal disease [...]
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Lila Murry & Sites of Significance in Progressive-Era Women’s Lives
Around January 5, 1922, Lila Murry, a 25-year old Nebraska native, discovered she was pregnant. Undoubtedly faced with limited options, Murry relocated from Lincoln, Nebraska to the Salvation Army Rescue Home in Omaha. The Rescue Home opened in 1896 and was self-characterized as a refuge for young and unwed pregnant women and girls, those regarded as “incorrigible,” who turned to the home for shelter and support. The women and girls received housing, medical assistance, and food, in addition to material items for the care of their child(ren) [...]
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The Many Habeas Corpus Proceedings of Kate Lovell and the Trials of Motherhood
On April 1st 1891, Kate [Lovell] dropped off one of her youngest children, Maggie, at the House of the Good Shepherd with their Mother Superior. In August of 1891, Kate Burns would return for Maggie in preparation for moving her family to New York. Sister Mary, the Mother Superior of the House of Good Shepherd, refused to surrender Maggie, so Kate filed a habeas petition to challenge the nun... Judge I.J. Lichtenberg ruled Kate’s petition invalid, so Kate made a second petition that Judge Lichtenberg also dismissed, calling her an “utterly unfit” guardian of Maggie [...]
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