Massachusetts Personal Liberty Act

An Act to protect the Rights and Liberties of the People of the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Sect. 1. All the provisions of the "Act further to protect Personal Liberty," passed the twenty-fourth day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-three, shall apply to the act of congress, approved September eighteen, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty, entitled "An Act to amend, and supplementary to, the act entitled 'An Act respecting fugitives from justice and persons escaping from the service of their masters.'"

Sect. 2. The meaning of the one hundred and eleventh chapter of the Revised Statutes is hereby declared to be, that every person imprisoned or restrained of his liberty is entitled, as of right and of course, to the writ of habeas corpus, except in the cases mentioned in the second section of the chapter.

Sect. 3. The writ of habeas corpus may be issued by the supreme judicial court, the court of common pleas, by any justice's court or police court of any town or city, by any court of record, or by any justice of either of said courts, or by any judge of probate; and it may be issued by any justice of the peace, if no magistrate above named is known to said justice of the peace to be within five miles of the place where the party is imprisoned or restrained, and it shall be returnable before the supreme judicial court, or any one of the justices thereof, whether the court may be in session or not, and in term time or vacation.

Sect. 4. The supreme judicial court, or any justice of said court before whom the writ of habeas corpus shall be made returnable, shall, on the application of any party to the proceeding, order a trial by jury as to any facts stated in the return of the officer, or as to any facts alleged, if it shall appear by the return of the officer or otherwise, that the person whose restraint or imprisonment is in question is claimed to be held to service or labor in another State, and to have escaped from such service or labor, and may admit said person to bail in a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars. In such case, issue may be joined by a general denial of the facts alleged, the plea may be not guilty, and the jury shall have the right to return a general verdict, and the same discretion as juries have in the trial of criminal cases; and the finding of a verdict of not guilty shall be final and conclusive.

Sect. 5. The court or justice before whom the writ of habeas corpus is returnable shall, unless a jury is already in attendance, by warrant, command the sheriff of the county, or his deputy, to summon a jury in the manner provided in the twenty-fourth chapter of the Revised Statutes, to attend at the time and place stated in the warrant, at which time and place they shall be impanelled, and having elected a foreman by ballot, the issue so framed shall be put to them for their determination. In case one jury shall disagree, the issue may be submitted to the other jury, or continued to the next term, at the discretion of the court. And in every case of disagreement another jury may be summoned and qualified as above provided, forthwith or at a future day, in the discretion of the court or justice before whom the writ is returned, until a verdict shall finally be rendered upon the issue. If any person summoned as a juror as aforesaid shall fail to attend without sufficient cause, he shall pay a fine of fifty dollars. And if, by reason of challenges or otherwise, there shall not be a full jury of the persons summoned, the officer attending the hearing shall return some suitable person or persons to supply the deficiency.

Sect. 6. If any claimant shall appear to demand the custody or possession of the person for whose benefit said writ is sued out, such claimant shall state ira writing the facts on which he relies, with precision and certainty; and neither the claimant of the alleged fugitive, nor any person interested in his alleged obligation to service or labor, nor the alleged fugitive, shall be permitted to testify at the trial of the issue; and no confessions, admissions or declarations of the alleged fugitive against himself shall be given in evidence. Upon every question of fact involved in the issue, the burden of proof shall be on the claimant, and the facts alleged and necessary to be established, must be proved by the testimony of at least two credible witnesses, or other legal evidence equivalent thereto, and by the rules of evidence known and secured by the common law; and no ex parte deposition or affidavit shall be received in proof in behalf of the claimant, and no presumption shall arise in favor of the claimant from any proof that the alleged fugitive or any of his ancestors had been actually held as a slave, without proof that such holding was legal.

Sect. 7. If any person shall remove from the limits of this Commonwealth, or shall assist in removing therefrom, or shall come into the Commonwealth with the intention of removing or of assisting in the removing therefrom, or shall procure or assist in procuring to be so removed, any person being in the peace thereof who is not "held to service or labor" by the "party" making "claim," or who has not "escaped" from the "party" making "claim," or whose "service or labor" is not "due" to the "party" making "claim," within the meaning of those words in the constitution of the United States, on the pretence that such person is so held or has so escaped, or that his "service or labor" is so "due," or with the intent to subject him to such "service or labor," he shall be punished by a fine not less than one thousand, nor more than five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment in the State Prison not less than one, nor more than five years.

Sect. 8. Any person sustaining wrong or injury by any proceeding punishable by the preceding section, may maintain an action and recover damages therefor in any court competent to try the same.

Sect. 9. No person, while holding any office of honor, trust, or emolument, under the laws of this Commonwealth, shall, in any capacity, issue any warrant or other process, or grant any certificate, under or by virtue of an act of congress, approved the twelfth day of February, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, entitled "An Act respecting fugitives from justice and persons escaping from the service of their masters," or under or by virtue of an act of congress, approved the eighteenth day of September, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty, entitled "An Act to amend, and supplementary to, 'An Act respecting fugitives from justice and persons escaping from the service of their masters,'" or shall, in any capacity, serve any such warrant or other process.

Sect. 10. Any person who shall grant any certificate under or by Virtue of the acts of congress, mentioned in the preceding section, shall be deemed to have resigned any commission from the Commonwealth which he may possess, his office shall be deemed vacant, and he shall be forever thereafter ineligible to any office of trust, honor or emolument, under the laws of this Commonwealth.

Sect. 11. Any person who shall act as counsel or attorney for any claimant of any alleged fugitive from service or labor, under or by virtue of the acts of congress mentioned in the ninth section of this act, shall be deemed to have resigned any commission from the Commonwealth that he may possess, and he shall be thereafter incapacitated from appearing as counsel or attorney in the courts of this Commonwealth. 

Sect. 12. The two preceding sections shall not apply to removal from judicial office; but if either of the actions there specified shall be performed by any person holding judicial office under this Commonwealth, it shall be considered as a violation of good behavior as well as a reason for loss of public confidence, and as furnishing sufficient ground, either for impeachment, or for removal by address. 

Sect. 13. No person who holds any office under the laws of the United States, which qualifies him to issue any warrant or other process, or to grant any certificate under the acts of congress named in the ninth section of this act, or to serve the same, shall, at the same time, hold any office of honor, trust or emolument under the laws of this Commonwealth. 

Sect. 14. Any person holding any judicial office under the constitution or laws of this Commonwealth, who shall continue, for ten days after the passage of this act, to hold the office of United States commissioner, or any office under the laws of the United States which qualifies him to issue any warrant or other process, or grant any certificate under the acts of congress named in the ninth section of this act, shall be deemed to have violated good behavior, to have given reason for loss of public confidence, and furnished sufficient ground either for impeachment or for removal by address.

Sect. 15. Any sheriff, deputy sheriff, jailer, coroner, constable or other officer of this Commonwealth, or the police of any city or town, or any district, county, city or town officer, or any officer or other member of the volunteer militia of this Commonwealth, who shall hereafter arrest, imprison, detain or return, or aid in arresting, imprisoning, detaining or returning, any person for the reason that he is claimed or adjudged to be a fugitive from service or labor, shall be punished by fine not less than one thousand, and not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment in the State Prison for not less than one, nor more than two, years.

Sect. 16. The volunteer militia of this Commonwealth shall not act in any manner in the seizure, detention or rendition of any person for the reason that he is claimed or adjudged to be a fugitive from service or labor. Any member of the same who shall offend against the provisions of this section shall be punished by fine  not less than one thousand, and not exceeding two thousand, dollars, and by imprisonment in the State Prison for not less than one, nor more than two, years.

Sect. 17. The governor, by and with the advice and consent of the council, shall appoint, in every county, one or more commissioners learned in the law, whose duty it shall be, in their respective counties, when any person in this State is arrested or seized, or in danger of being arrested or seized as a fugitive from service or labor, on being informed thereof, diligently and faithfully to use all lawful means to protect, defend and secure to such alleged fugitive a fair and impartial trial by jury and the benefits of the provisions of this act; and any attorney whose services are desired by the alleged fugitive may also act as counsel in the case.

Sect. 18. The commissioners shall defray all expenses of witnesses, clerks' fees, and officers' fees, and other expenses which may be incurred in the protection and defence of any person seized or arrested as a fugitive from service or labor; and the same, together with the reasonable charges of the commissioners for their services as attorneys and counsel in the case, shall be paid by the State treasurer, on a warrant to be issued by the governor.

Sect. 19. No jail, prison, or other place of confinement belonging to, or used by, either the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or any county therein, shall be used for the detention or imprisonment of any person accused or convicted of any offence created by either of the said acts of congress mentioned in the ninth section of this act, or accused or convicted of obstructing or resisting any process, warrant, or order, issued under either of said acts, or of rescuing, or attempting to rescue, any person arrested or detained under any of the provisions of either of said acts, nor for the imprisonment of any person arrested on mesne process, or on execution in any suit for damages or penalties accruing, or being claimed to accrue, in consequence of any aid rendered to any escaping fugitive from service or labor.

Sect. 20. All the provisions of law as to the writ of habeas corpus, heretofore existing and in force, so far as applicable, and so far as not hereby changed, shall apply to the cases arising under this act.

Sect. 21. Nothing in this act shall be construed to apply to so much of the act of the twelfth of February, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, as relates to fugitives from justice.

Sect. 22. All acts, or parts of acts, inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.

Sect. 23. This act shall take effect from and after its passage.