made and provided, do certify, that A. D. day of SEC. 13. Whenever any prisoner shall present such a certificate as is prescribed in the next preceding section to the keeper of the jail in which he is imprisoned, such keeper shall forthwith discharge him from his commitment at the suit of the creditor named therein. SEC. 14. No person who has been admitted to take the oath aforesaid shall be retained in jail for the prison fees, or for the fees of the justice before whom he may have taken such oath. SEC. 15. No keeper of any jail receiving an assignment under the tenth section of this chapter shall be held responsible to any person for any property of any assignor, except such as he has actually received into his possession: Provided, he shall assign all the interest he shall obtain thereby to the committing creditor, if a resident of this state, on his request, or to such person being a resident thereof as such creditor shall name; to be held by such creditor or person, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, for the purposes and trusts set forth in said deed. SEC. 16. No person who shall be committed on execution awarded against him as plaintiff in replevin, or as defendant in any action on a penal statute, or in any action of trover or detinue, or for any malicious injury to the person, health, or reputation of the plaintiff in such suit, or for seduction, or for any trespass excepting only such as are particularly named in the first section hereof, shall be deemed to be within the meaning of the provision of that section, or entitled to be admitted to take the oath as aforesaid. SEC. 17. If a debtor take out a citation to his committing creditor, and has the same served, and subsequently withdraws the same, or if upon trial he shall not be admitted to take the oath above prescribed, he shall not be entitled to another citation to the same creditor unless on proof of some change of circumstances after the taking out of the first citation; which change of circumstances shall be annexed to or recited in the second citation and form a part therof. Relief before the court. SEC. 18. The court before which any action is pending for the recovery of any debt or demand, for which the defendant, if committed to jail thereon, would be entitled to be admitted to take the oath aforesaid, may administer the said oath to the defendant as hereinafter provided. Application for citation, to whom made. How served and returned. Hearing on such citation. Execution, how to run if oath administered. Defendant in may apply for citation to his creditor. SEC. 19. The defendant, in such case, may apply to any justice court, in the county in which he resides, for a citation to the creditor to appear at the court in which such action is pending, to show cause why the defendant should not be admitted to take said oath. SEC. 20. Such citation shall be served by any sheriff, deputy sheriff, town sergeant, or constable, at least four days before the time therein appointed for taking said oath, by reading the same to the plaintiff, or by leaving an attested copy thereof at his last and usual place of abode in this state; and such citation shall be returned to the court in which such action is pending. If the plaintiff does not reside in this state, service of such citation may be made in like manner upon the agent or attorney of record of the plaintiff, in this state. SEC. 21. If it shall appear to the court in which the said action is pending that notice has been given as before provided, such court shall examine the defendant on his oath concerning his estate and effects and the disposal thereof, and may also receive any other evidence offered by the defendant or the plaintiff; and upon such examination the court may, in its discretion, administer to the defendant the said oath. SEC. 22. If said oath be administered, the execution which may be issued against the defendant in such action shall run against the goods and chattels, or real estate of the defendant, and not against his body. Relief of debtors liable to imprisonment on execution. SEC. 23. Every defendant in any execution, who would, if comexecution, &c., mitted to jail thereon, and every person against whom final judgment has been rendered in any civil action, who would, if committed to jail on execution to be issued thereon, be entitled to be admitted to take the oath aforesaid, may apply in the manner hereinbefore mentioned for a citation to his creditor, to show cause why he should not be admitted to take said oath. SEC. 24. Such citation shall be served in the same manner as is provided in the twentieth section of this chapter. SEC. 25. Upon the return of such citation, the magistrate authorized to administer said oath by section ten of this chapter, in the county in which such defendant is liable to be imprisoned, may administer such oath to the defendant, if upon examination of the defendant on oath, and of such other evidence as either party may produce, he may think proper. SEC. 26. If the defendant be admitted to take such oath, he shall thereafter be exempt from imprisonment on said execution or any future execution that may be issued on such judgment; and execution on such judgment shall issue only against the goods and chattels and real estate of the said defendant. SEC. 27. The justice administering the oath aforesaid, pursuant to the provisions of the twenty-fifth section of this chapter, shall give a certificate to that effect under his hand and seal to the said defendant. In all cases, the justice who commences the examination of the prisoner under the provisions of this chapter shall alone have the power to sign and seal the certificate of his discharge. SEC. 28. Whenever the oath aforesaid shall be administered to any defendant under the provisions of the ten sections next preceding, he shall then and there make an assignment of all his estate, real copies, where to be filed. and personal, not exempted from attachment by law, to some respon- made, and sible inhabitant of this state, his heirs and assigns, to be approved by the magistrate administering said oath, in trust for the benefit of all his creditors in proportion to their demands, and a copy of which assignment shall be filed by the assignee in the office of the clerk of the court issuing such execution. Who deemed the creditor under this SEC. 29. The person to whom the debt appears by the process to belong at the time complaint is made shall be deemed the creditor within the meaning of the provisions of this chapter. Neither the chapter, and commitment of the prisoner nor his discharge shall be a satisfaction what the effect of a discharge. of the debt for which he was committed. If committed on execution, the plaintiff may take out another execution, which shall not however run against the body of the defendant. If suit be brought on the judgment, execution in such suit shall not run against the body of the defendant, nor shall the defendant be held to bail on the writ in such case. If the defendant be committed on mesne process, when he receives a certificate as aforesaid, if that fact be shown by plea to the court before whom the action is pending, then execution shall not issue against the body of the defendant; but in all such cases, execution shall issue against the goods and chattels and real estate of such defendant. SEC. 30. Any justice of the supreme court, or any trial justice or justice of the peace in the same county, who shall be present at the time and place to which any citation in behalf of any poor prisoner issued under the provisions of this chapter shall be duly returned, may, in the absence of another magistrate, adjourn the hearing thereon to any other time or place, as he may think proper, with the same effect as if another justice were present. SEC. 31. Any one of the Narragansett tribe of Indians committed to jail for debt, upon mesne process or execution, shall be considered as a poor prisoner, within the true intent and meaning of this chapter, notwithstanding such prisoner may have estate, real or personal, in common with the said tribe; and shall be entitled to and may receive all the benefits and advantages hereof. SEC. 32. Every person imprisoned, or liable to be imprisoned, in any suit in favor of the state, entitled to the oath prescribed in the eleventh section of this chapter, may apply for and have a citation to the state, to show cause why he should not be admitted to take such oath. SEC. 33. Such citation shall be issued to and served upon the attorney-general, in the same manner and with the same effect as is provided in the case of creditors other than the state, except that no board need be demanded or paid. Who may adjourn the hearing on a citation. Members of Narragansett tribe, within provisions of this chapter. of citation of persons imprisoned, &c., at suit of state. Citation, how served, and effect of. SECTION 1. Any person who shall be imprisoned upon original writ, mesne process, execution, or surrender, or commitment by bail in any action on penal statutes, or in any action of trover, detinue, trespass, trespass and ejectment, or trespass quare clausum fregit, in which the title to the close was not in dispute between the parties, or in any action of the case for words spoken, and who shall complain, on oath, to the keeper of the jail in which he is imprisoned, that he has no estate, real or personal, wherewith to support himself in jail or pay jail charges, shall be entitled to a citation as hereinafter provided. SEC. 2. If such keeper shall believe such complaint to be true, he shall forthwith issue a citation under his hand and seal to the plaintiff at whose suit the complainant is imprisoned, if the plaintiff resides in this state, or if he does not reside within this state, then to his agent or attorney of record, or if he have no agent or attorney of record, then to the person who endorsed the plaintiff's writ as surety. SEC. 3. Such citation shall set forth that such prisoner has made complaint as aforesaid, and that such prisoner will be discharged unless the sum of three dollars per week be within ten days from the time of the service of such citation paid to the said keeper in advance, for the board of such prisoner, reckoning such board from the expiration of said ten days after such service, which payment in advance shall continue to be made by such creditor during the time such prisoner shall be detained at his suit. SEC. 4. Such keeper, upon issuing the citation, shall, at the expense of the state, cause service thereof to be made by the sheriff, his deputy, or any town sergeant or constable, on the person to whom such citation shall be directed as aforesaid, by reading the same to him in his presence and hearing, or by leaving a true and attested copy thereof at his last and usual place of abode. SEC. 5. In case of default made in payment of such prisoner's board, as required in the third section of this chapter, the keeper shall discharge such prisoner from jail, stating in his formal discharge on the jail book the reason therefor. SEC. 6. The amount thus paid by the creditor, for the board of the prisoner so imprisoned at his suit, shall be added to and form a part of the costs of commitment and detention, and as such costs shall be paid by the prisoner in the then existing or any future proceedings which may be lawfully instituted against him for the recovery of the debt and costs of such suit. TITLE XXIX. OF PROCEEDINGS IN SPECIAL CASES. CHAPTER 217. Of habeas corpus. CHAPTER 218. Of dower, action of dower, and of jointure. CHAPTER 219. Of partition of estates in common and joint tenancy, and CHAPTER 220. Of waste, action of waste, and writs of estrepement. CHAPTER 222. Of trespasses. CHAPTER 223. Of proceedings in forcible entry and detainer. 1. General right to habeas corpus. 2. Persons in jail who are not entitled to it. 3. Application for, to whom and how made. 4. Form of writ. 5. How signed and tested. 6. How returned. 7. Time of return. 8. Return of officer, what to state. 9. Return, how signed, and when to be sworn to. 10. Person returning, when to bring the body. 11. Return, in case he cannot, and proceedings thereupon. 12. Examination upon return. 13. Of notice to party, in case of de tention in civil process. 14. Of notice to attorney-general, in case of detention on criminal process. 15. Of pleading to return, evidence, and power of court over the applicant. 16. Applicant for, when to be discharged. 17. When to be bailed, and when remanded with amount of bail fixed, in criminal cases. 18. Amount of bail, when to be fixed in civil cases. SECTION 19. What to be done if applicant is not entitled to be bailed. 20. Court or justice, when may bail or remand. 21. Penalty upon officer for refusing copy of process of detention. 22. Power of court to enforce obedience to by proceedings in contempt. 23. Attachment for contempt, how directed and served. 24. Process to enforce the bringing of the body, and proceedings on. 25. Penalty for refusal to receive and execute writ of habeas corpus. 26. Penalty for eluding, by removal of body. 27. Penalties, no bar to common law remedies. 28. Effect of discharge in future imprisonment. 29. Saving of power of supreme court and justices of, to bail. 30. Persons committed for crime, by whom to be bailed, and of power of justices to issue habeas corpus, in order to. 31. Saving of powers of courts to issue habeas corpus to bring up prisoners for trial, and persons as wit nesses. to habeas SECTION 1. Every person imprisoned in any common jail, or General right otherwise restrained of his liberty, by any officer or other person, except in cases mentioned in the following sections, may prosecute a writ of habeas corpus, according to the provisions of this chapter, to obtain relief from such imprisonment or restraint, if it shall prove to be unlawful. SEC. 2. The following persons confined in any jail shall not be Persons in jail entitled as of right to demand and prosecute said writ: First. Persons convicted of treason against this state, murder, rape, robbery, arson, burglary, or as accessories before the fact in either of those crimes, or committed on suspicion of being guilty of either who are not entitled to. |