New York state’s highest court heard arguments Wednesday in a case where NYPD officers shackled an incarcerated, mentally ill man to a hospital bed for 26 days against a physician’s orders. Now, judges are weighing whether that man should be able to challenge those restraints — not the custody itself —with a habeas corpus petition, a legal action designed to get people out of illegal custody.
The judge’s decision in this man’s case could expand what the writ – which has recently exploded in use as attorneys rush to challenge illegal ICE detentions – can be used for and help clarify the correct legal pathway to challenge cops physically restraining incarcerated people against physicians’ orders, a process attorneys say is currently murky.
