Williams v. Florida
United States Supreme Court case
Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78 (1970), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the Fifth Amendment does not entitle a defendant in a criminal trial to refuse to provide pre-trial notice of some details of his alibi witnesses to the prosecution, and that the Sixth Amendment does not require a jury to have 12 members.
Background
Williams had been convicted of robbery in Florida and sentenced to life imprisonment. Williams's defense had been alibi, and Florida law required him to notify the prosecution, in advance of the trial, of the names of his alibi witnesses, so that the prosecution could try to obtain rebuttal evidence. Williams argued that the requirement to assist the prosecution in this way violated his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.
Also, in 1967 Florida had reduced the number of jurors in all non-capital cases from 12 to 6, and so Williams had been convicted by a jury of six. Williams argued that the Sixth Amendment not only guaranteed the right to a jury trial, but also required that a jury must have all the characteristics it had under the common law, including that it consist of 12 persons.
The Florida District Court of Appeal ruled against Williams on both issues. The Florida Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case, and in 1969 the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
Opinion of the Court
The Court held that Florida's notice-of-alibi rule did not violate the Fifth Amendment.
“Williams v. Florida” enters the record as united States Supreme Court case. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Williams, Florida and United can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Williams v. Florida” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.