Case Citator › Williams v. Florida

Williams v. Florida

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Questioned by some courts
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
399 U.S. 78
Decided
Confirmed treatments
1
Flagged citations read
108 of 111
Citing cases (total)
1,738
Treatment dates
2008
Questioned by some courts
At least one reviewed court has questioned this case’s reasoning or continued validity. No reviewed court has overruled it. Williams v. Florida is still in review: of the 111 flagged citations, 108 were read and the text of the other 3 could not be retrieved; the confirmed questioning is listed below. Gonzalez v. State questioned Williams's empirical premise that six- and twelve-person juries are functionally equivalent, while recognizing that only the Supreme Court could revisit Williams's constitutional holding.
More on how this was screened

California separately retained a more protective rule under its own constitution, as noted below. The other reviewed opinions did not adversely treat Williams.

The treatments below are confirmed; unread citations could still change the overall status.
Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case, except the ones whose text could not be retrieved.

1,738 later cases cite Williams v. Florida; 111 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading; 108 of them have been read, and the text of 3 citing opinions could not be retrieved, so those remain unread. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Williams v. Florida?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Questioned

  • The court questioned Williams's premise that six- and twelve-person juries are functionally equivalent, finding the contrary argument persuasive in light of later empirical evidence while remaining bound by Williams's constitutional holding.

    Gonzalez v. State · Florida Second District Court of Appeal · filed

    There clearly is more scientific evidence today than in 1970 that a twelve-person jury may be superior to a six-person jury to accomplish the functions, purposes, and goals identified by the Williams court. Ensuing scholarship has criticized the empirical authorities upon which the Williams court relied ... and collected more empirical studies that contradict the conclusions of the Court. ... As persuasive as Mr. Gonzalez's argument may be, this court is bound by existing Supreme Court precedent to hold that the six-person jury that convicted him was not, by sheer virtue of its size, constitutionally deficient. That argument must be made ultimately to the Supreme Court.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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