Regarding the "Great Writ" [View All]

I've noticed a number of threads that mention the Bush administration's attack on habeas corpus. This is something that should be of concern to all of us. Habeas corpus means "you should have the body" in Latin. It is a concept that has a unique position in the history of western jurisprudence. It was rooted in English common law and the Magna Carta.

"The writ of habeas corpus," a US Supreme Court decision noted, "is a procedural device for subjecting executive, judicial, or private restraints on liberty to judicial scrutiny. Where it is available, it assures among other things that a prisoner may require his jailer to justify the detention under law. In England ... and in the United States, this high purpose has made the writ both the symbol and guardian of individual liberty." (Quoted from: Lazarus and the Hurricane; Chaiton & Swinton; 1991;page 274.)

In 1996, the House and Senate passed the Effective Death Penalty Act. This act, signed into law by a democratic president, severely restricted the right of habeas corpus for American citizens who were incarcerated. The following "link" provides a brief article describing the law.

http://www.vote.com/vote/3315573/argument3315711.phtml?cat=4075633

It quotes Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), the only national leader with the courage to speak out strongly against the act. "If I had the choice of living in a country with no elections but a full habeas corpus right, or with elections and no habeas corpus, I'd choose the country with no elections," Senator Moynihan stated.

The article also quotes Hofstra law professor Leon Friedman. Leon was the attorney who took Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's case to the federal level. On November 7, 1985, Rubin's conviction for a 1966 triple murder was overturned in US District Court in Newark, NJ. Judge H. Lee Sarokin found that the prosecution had committed "grave constitutional violations," and that Rubin and John Artis were convicted on an appeal to "racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure."

F. Lee Baily said that, "The Hurricane Carter case is one of this century's most important legal sagas." Rubin spent 20 years incarcerated for a crime that he did not commit. His appeal was being stifled in New Jersey state courts; it was the Great Writ that finally brought about justice.

Since winning his case in 1985, Carter has fought for the rights of the wrongly convicted, and fought against the death penalty around the world. In the late 1990s, he traveled to Texas to speak to the governor of that state. Rubin was concerned about the denial of rights for inmates in Texas, as well as the high rate of executions.

Governor Bush was not interested in what Carter had to say. But you should be. If you are concerned about things like torture, the denial of basic rights for those incarcerated in the US, and the on-going crushing of the Great Writ, Rubin's case should be of interest. Take the time to watch the wonderful movie "The Hurricane."

We are in a long, very difficult struggle. Do not become depressed, because some in congress and the senate voted for a terrible bill to become law. It's not the first time. Not by a long shot. But we will survive this. We will become stronger -- not because of this, but in spite of it. We will not only survive. We will win. Count on it.