The writ of habeas corpus shall be issued upon petition on behalf of anyone showing by affidavit probable cause that he is being detained without lawful authority or is being imprisoned when by law he is entitled to bail. The writ may be issued by any Circuit Judge on any day at any time and his power to issue such writs shall be coextensive with the Commonwealth.
KRS 419.020
Issuance of writs
Applied in 28 court decisions — leading case Bowling v. Commonwealth (2005)
Most recently applied in Durand Edward Murrell v. Don Bottom Warden, Northpoint Training Center (March 2017)
History: Created 1962 Ky
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: Kentucky General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Kentucky statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.