Evening star., 1944-12-10
Habeas Corpus
Will Be Studied
By3Connn1ittees
Jurists to Discuss
Revision at Meeting
Here Tomorrow

va PAo ~ 1ONSohO wall bC
here at $3.50 pm. tomorrow wher
three committees named to take vi
the entire question meet in the of
fee Of Justice James w. Morris o.
District Court.
Here for the session will be Fourth
Circuit Court Judge John j. Parker
of Charlotte, N. c., chairman of 6
committee of the Conference o.
Senior Circuit Court Judges, which
has been studying the problem.
The question of revision of habeas
corpus procedure has been under
lined here within the last week BY
the De Marcos case in which a IT.
year-old convicted slayer obtained
his release from st. Elizabeth's Hos
pital on habeas corpus writ.
Justice Morris Chairman.
Justice Morris is chairman of q
committee appointed six months age
by Chief Justice D. Lawrence Groner
Of the United States Court of Ap-
peals to study the problem in con-
junction with the committee head
ed by Judge Parker. Others on the
local committee are Justice Jesse
Adkins of District Court and Justice
Justin Miller of the United States
Court of Appeals.
The third group to join in the
meeting will be District Bar Asso-
ciation committee headed by Ring
gold Hart and including Neil Burk-
inshaw, Edmund D. Campbell, Fran
els w. Hill, jr., Roger Robb and Leo
Rover.
The two local committees pre-
yiously have met separately.
The habeas corpus privilege is one
of the Nations most jealously
guarded inheritances from the Eng
ish common law.
Habeas corpus, in the law, is a
writ, issued by a judge or court, Or
dering the person to whom it is
directed to bring the person in his
custody before the court so the court
may determine whether he is being
legally detained. 1t is designed to
secure the freedom of any person
from wrongful Imprisonment or de-
tention, and as such has long been
viewed as the laws strongest de-
fense of personal freedom.
Districts Problem Grows.
No one has any quarrel with the
principle of habeas corpus, but there
has been general recognition in the
last few years that a revision of
habeas corpus proceedings may be
necessary, it was pointed out here.
Chief Justice Groner, whose COM
mittee of jurists has been asked to
study the entire question of habeas
corpus procedure in relation to the
District, pointed out yesterday that
the Districts problem has been in
tensified by the s.iminense number"
of patients confined toSt, Eliza
beth's Hospital He emphasized,
however, that his committee was in
no way linked with the De Marcos
case.
DR.. Winfred Overholser, superin-
tendent of St. Elizabeths who has
been obliged to answer more than
100 writs of habeas corpus in the
last year, pointed out yesterday
there are two questions involved in
habeas corpus proceeding in which
a mental patient is involevd: l. Was
the person properly committed? 2.
If so, is he now sane and not dan
gerous to himself or others?
The hospital superintendent be-
lieves that under present District
procedure habeas corpus privileges
are permitted to be misued by men
tai hospital patients.
Over 100 Filed Yearly.
When he became superintendent
in 1887, DR.. Overnolser said, there
were an average of Is or 20 habeas
corpus proceedings taken a year for
release of mental patients. Today
the figure stands at well over 100
year.
The rising curve of habeas corpus
petitions is not confined to the Dis
trict alone, but isn't particularly a
problem elsewhere in connection
with efforts to release mental
patients, DR.. OYerholser pointed out.
"The vast bulk of mental patients
in the United States are held in
public institutions, and the courts,
in general, are inclined to assume
that public officials are doing their
job properly" DR.. Overholser de-
clared.
Most public institutions are
crowded and the tendency is to
discharge, rather than to hold pa
tients, on account of the overcrowd-
lng," he said.
With regard to the asserted grow
ing misuse of habeas corpus
throughout the United States, j.
Edgar Hoover, director of the Fed
eral Bureau of Investigation, said
some time ago in an article in the
American Magazine:
Patients Serve as Own Counsel.
"' In one Southeastern prison,
which has particularly complete
law library, about 400 habeas corpus
petitions were produced" by prison.
ers in one year.
DR.. Overholser pointed out also
that attorneys are not to blame for
the increase in the number of pc
titions filed in District Court. In
many cases the patients serve as
their own counsel.
DR.. Overholser 81 the number
of frivolous" habeas corpus cases
started by patients represents a
very serious waste of time of the
hospital personnel and waste of
gas and tires" during protracted
court proceedings, delays and con-
tinuances which frequently arise.
In number of cases, he said, as
many as 100 separate trips have
been made to the courts or agencies
of the courts in connection with the
case of single patient.
DR.. Overholser believes, in order
to avoid this and reduce the num-
Der of cases, that the courts could
very properly" limit the frequency
with which patient may file a