veiled4allah: challenging the government over your detention

We have a new assignment in my Legal Research class. This time the topic is what's known as a "Personal Restraint Petition" (PRP). The PRP is a particular method designated by state law here to file a habeas corpus petition.

What the habeas corpus petition and the PRP do is allow someone to challenge the imprisonment (i.e., personal restraint) of an individual. The prisoner can do so himself, or someone on his behalf. What they actually do is petition the court to issue a writ of habeas corpus, in which the court demands that the imprisoning authority (such as the state or federal government) appear before the court and justify why the prisoner is being held.

This is a hot issue today because the federal government is holding a large number and wide variety of detainees as part of the "war on terrorism" without having to file charges against these individuals, explain why they're being held, or even give out information on who they are. This is one of the aspects of the "war on terrorism" that is particularly disturbing to me and quite frankly it's something that I never thought would happen in this country.

There's another use for the PRP, however, and that's for a prisoner to appeal his conviction. Under state law, defendants have one opportunity to appeal through the courts. However, even after having used up their appeal, they can file a PRP and attempt to get a second review of their case. This is the aspect of the PRP that my assignment actually deals with (although we discussed the other issue in class). The assignment involves researching a legal question about what types of issues can be raised in the PRP and writing a memo on it.