On this day in 1679, the Parliament of England passed the Habeas Corpus Act o define and strengthen the ancient prerogative writ of habeas corpus, which required a court to examine the lawfulness of a prisoner’s detention and thus prevent unlawful or arbitrary imprisonment.
The act is often wrongly described as the origin of the writ of habeas corpus. But the writ of habeas corpus had existed in various forms in England for at least five centuries before and is thought to have originated in the Assize of Clarendon of 1166. It was guaranteed, but not created, by Magna Carta in 1215, whose article 39 reads (translated from Latin): “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him except upon the lawful judgement of his peers or the law of the land.”
Many members of the current US administration appear to misunderstand the term, so here is a simple explanation: Habeas corpus is a legal process that ensures someone who is detained (arrested or imprisoned) has the right to be brought before a judge. This allows the judge to review the legality of their detention and determine if they should be released. Essentially, it’s a way to prevent unlawful imprisonment.
We try to give our cats a good life…
Today is the birthday, in 1971, of Lisa Lopes, Left-Eye, singer with American girl group TLC. They scored nine top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four No.1 singles, ‘Creep’, ‘Waterfalls’, ‘No Scrubs’, and ‘Unpretty’. Their 1999 US No.1 album Fanmail spent 57 weeks on the UK chart. Having sold over 65 million records worldwide, TLC is the best-selling American girl group. Lopes was killed in a car accident on April 25th 2002 aged 30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrLequ6dUdM
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