IN THE AUTUMN OF 1854 Reverend Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Martin Stowell, and others were indicted by a grand jury for “knowingly and willfully obstructing, resisting and opposing” a United States Marshal in “the discharge of his lawful duties.”
On April 3, 1855, the Court pronounced all the indictments lacking. The U.S. District Attorney, Benjamin Hallett, was then unwilling to prosecute further, and the suit against the accused individuals was dropped.
The extradition of Anthony Burns was the immediate cause for legislation called the Personal Liberty Law, passed in Massachusetts on May 21, 1855. The Law guaranteed that no individual could be arrested and thrown into jail without first going before a judge or a court to determine whether his arrest had been justified. This right of habeas corpus is a safeguard against illegal detention or imprisonment.
The slave struggle continued in the North and South. But Anthony Burns was the last fugitive ever seized on Massachusetts soil.