When any person detained in custody, whether charged with a criminal offense or not, applies to the Supreme Court or any justice thereof, or to any district court of appeal or any judge thereof or to any circuit judge for a writ of habeas corpus and shows by affidavit or evidence probable cause to believe that he or she is detained without lawful authority, the court, justice, or judge to whom such application is made shall grant the writ forthwith, against the person in whose custody the applicant is detained and returnable immediately before any of the courts, justices, or judges as the writ directs.
Fla. Stat. § 79.01
Application and writ
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case White v. MacFarlane (1986)
Most recently applied in Howarth v. Department of Corrections (April 2017)
History.--s. 1, Sept. 16, 1822; s. 1, ch. 3129, 1879; RS 1771; GS 2248; RGS 3571; CGL 5435; s. 29, ch. 67-254; s. 413, ch. 95-147.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Online Sunshine (Florida Legislature). Reproduced from public-domain Florida statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.