Oklahoma § 12-397 - Prisoner as witness or complaining or defending party Release for examination - Notice - Attorney fee award prohibited Writ of habeas corpus

§ 12-397. Prisoner as witness or complaining or defending party Release for examination - Notice - Attorney fee award prohibited Writ of habeas corpus

A. A person confined in any prison in this state may by order

of any court of record, be required to be produced for oral

examination as a witness by the court in the county where he is

imprisoned, but in all other cases his examination must be by

deposition.

B. Any person or a prisoner confined in any prison or jail in

this state who is the complaining party or defending party in any

form of a civil action may apply for a Writ of Habeas Corpus for the

purpose of having the prisoner appear before the court for an

evidentiary hearing in which the court shall take testimony from the

prisoner. The custodian of the prisoner shall be given prior notice

of the application and fifteen (15) days to respond prior to the

decision of the court. If the court issues such writ, it shall be

issued and delivered to the custodian of the prisoner at least

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 12. Civil Procedure

fifteen (15) days prior to the date the prisoner is to appear, shall

order the custodian to be paid for all costs of transportation and

shall order the prisoner to be delivered to the court named in the

writ. The court shall not consider a writ of habeas corpus ad

testificandum except for a hearing on the merits of the civil

action. The court shall not award attorney fees and costs to the

prevailing party in this matter. All pretrial hearings for the

civil action that involve a prisoner shall be conducted by

telephone, deposition or video conference.

C. If upon application, the court issues a Writ of Habeas

Corpus as provided in subsection B of this section, it shall order

the person applying for such writ or other appropriate party to pay

to the custodian executing the writ all costs of transporting the

prisoner to and from the court. No court shall waive the

requirement to pay the costs of transportation to the custodian.

The writ shall also serve as a judgment against the prisoner, if the

prisoner is the party ordered to pay transportation costs or was the

party seeking the writ, and may be enforced by the detaining

governmental unit without further order of any court for a period of

five (5) years after the date of the writ. The custodian executing

the release shall notify the prisoner and the court, at the time of

delivery, of the costs of transportation.

D. Any writ that fails to comply with all of the requirements

of this section shall be void and unenforceable and no officer or

employee of the custodian shall be liable for failing to execute

said writ.

R.L. 1910, § 5062. Amended by Laws 1993, c. 174, § 1, emerg. eff.

May 10, 1993; Laws 2002, c. 402, § 2, eff. July 1, 2002; Laws 2004,

c. 168, § 2, emerg. eff. April 27, 2004; Laws 2005, c. 159, § 2,

emerg. eff. May 10, 2005.

NOTE: Laws 2004, c. 168, § 18, providing for an effective date of

Nov. 1, 2004, was repealed by Laws 2004, c. 382, § 4, emerg. eff.

June 3, 2004.