870

LAWS OF MARYLAND.— 1809,

able, or if it shall appear that such person is detained without
any legal warrant or authority, such chancellor, judge or justice,
shall immediately release and discharge such person from such
illegal detention or restraint.
See 1816, ch. 193. See notes to sec. 1.

Penalty on
the officer
for neglect
of doty.

SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That any officer or other person
neglecting or refusing to make the return as aforesaid, or to
bring the body of the prisoner or person detained, according to
the command of the writ, within the time aforesaid, or not deli-
vering a true copy of the warrant of commitment or detainer,
if any there be, within six hours after demand thereof made, to
the prisoner or person demanding it on his or her behalf, which
copy the officer or other person is hereby required to deliver,
shall forfeit to the prisoner five hundred dollars, to recover
which the right of action shall not cease by the death of either
or both of the parties.

Persons de-
livered
upon a ha-
beas corpus
not to be
imprisoned,
&c.

SEC. 4. And be it enacted, That no person who shall have
been delivered upon a habeas corpus shall afterwards be impri-
soned or committed for the same offence, otherwise than by the
order or process of the court wherein he or she .shall be bound
by recognizance to appear, or some other court having jurisdic-
tion of the cause, or upon surrender by his or her bail.

Persons
committed
to prison in
custody of
an officer
not to be
removed to
the custody
of another,
unless by
writ, &c.

SEC. 5. And be it enacted, That a citizen of this state, com-
mitted to prison in custody of an officer for any criminal matter,
shall not be removed from thence into the custody of another
officer, unless it be by habeas corpus, or by other legal writ, or
where the prisoner shall be delivered to the constable or other
inferior officer to be carried to some common gaol, or shall be
removed from one place to another within the said county, or
any adjoining county, in order to his discharge or trial in due
course of law, or in case of sudden fire or infection, or other
necessity, or where the prisoner shall be charged, by affidavit,
with treason or felony alleged to be done in any other of the
United States of America, or the territories thereof, in which
last case he or she shall, on the demand of the executive autho-
rity of the state or territory from which he or she fled, be imme-
diately delivered up in pursuance of such demand.

Chancellor,
judge, &c.
refusing a
habeas cor-
pus liable
to an
action.

SEC. 6. And be it enacted, That if the chancellor, or any
judge or chief justice of the said court, in the vacation time,
upon view of the copy of the warrant of commitment or
detainer, or cause of commitment, or upon affidavit made that
such copy was denied as aforesaid, shall refuse any writ of
habeas corpus by this act required to be granted, being moved
as aforesaid, such chancellor, judge or justice, shall be liable to
the action of the party grieved.
SEC. 7. And be it enacted. That if any person who shall be
committed for treason or felony, plainly expressed in the war-