§ 9-14-3.Petition for writ — Contents

This section lays out the blueprint for a habeas petition under Article 1. The petition must be written and signed — by the applicant, an attorney or agent, or someone else acting on the applicant’s behalf. That signature requirement is a distinct question from who may be the applicant in the first place: Code Section 9-14-1 addresses standing to seek the writ, while this section addresses who may put their name to the petition on the applicant’s behalf. From there, the statute lists five things the petition must state, moving from identifying facts to the legal claim itself.

The first three elements pin down who is restrained, who is doing the restraining, and how and where. The third element also asks for a copy of any legal process behind the restraint, but only if the applicant is able to get one — the statute does not demand what the applicant cannot obtain. The fourth element is the heart of the petition: a distinct averment of the alleged illegality, or some other reason the writ should issue. The statute’s own word choice sets the bar here — “distinct” — so a bare assertion that the restraint is illegal, without saying why, does not satisfy this element on the statute’s own terms. The fifth element, the prayer for the writ, closes the petition with the actual request for relief.

Because these are minimum contents rather than a rigid form, a petition that covers all five points in its own words satisfies this section, whether or not it tracks the statute’s wording.