by 
Jodie44
ANSWERS: 3
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I didn't realise it was in the US constitution. It is really a term that was used in Britain and comes from the latin to literally mean 'I have the body'. It follows the idea that if you know somebody has committed a murder you must be able to provide a motive, a weapon, and the body of the victim. Without a body there was no crime. This can be extended to include other types of crimes and so has come to mean that you require enough evidence to show a reasonable belief of guilt before you can charge someone with an offence. You need to find the 'body'. If you watch any of the CSI programmes you will see how they pull people in because they know they committed the crime, but they have to find the evidence to be able to bring a charge. That, in a rather quick nutshell, is Habeas Corpus.
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A writ of habeas corpus ("you have the body" in Latin)is a court order issued to a prison to bring a prisoner to court if there is evidence that a person may have been improperly incarcerated, due to a factual or legal error. It is in the Constitution as a safeguard of our civil liberties. See Brown v. Vasquez, 952 F.2d 1164, 1166 (9th Cir. 1991), cert. denied, 112 S.Ct. 1778 (1992), the court observed that the Supreme Court has "recognized the fact that`[t]he writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.' Harris v. Nelson, 394 U.S. 286, 290-91 (1969). "Therefore, the writ must be administered with the initiative and flexibility essential to insure that miscarriages of justice within its reach are surfaced and corrected." Harris, 394 U.S. at 291. From www.LectLaw.com, Habeas Corpus Defined and Explained Apparently the founders were concerned about the state taking too much power into its hands. Hmmm
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Don't ask Alberto Gonzales
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