Williams v. Pennsylvania

Williams v. Pennsylvania
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 29, 2016 Decided June 9, 2016
Full case name	Terrance Williams, Petitioner v. Pennsylvania
Docket no.	15–5040
Citations	579 U.S. ___ (more) 136 S. Ct. 1899; 195 L. Ed. 2d 132
Opinion announcement	Opinion announcement
Case history
Prior	Commonwealth v. Williams, 629 Pa. 533, 105 A.3d 1234 (2014); cert. granted, 136 S. Ct. 28 (2015).
Holding
Chief Justice Castille's denial of the recusal motion and his subsequent judicial participation violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor Elena Kagan
Case opinions
Majority	Kennedy, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan
Dissent	Roberts, joined by Alito
Dissent	Thomas
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. VIII, XIV

Williams v. Pennsylvania, 579 U.S. ___ (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a prosecutor involved in seeking the death penalty for a defendant should recuse himself if asked to judge an appeal in the capital case.

Background

Terrance Williams was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder and robbery of Amos Norwood and then appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The Chief Justice of the state court by that point was Ronald Castille, who had been the local District Attorney of Philadelphia throughout Williams' trial, sentencing, and appeal, and who had personally authorized his office to seek the death penalty in this case. The attorneys for Williams asked the justice to recuse himself but Castille refused.

Opinion of the Court

Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the majority opinion.

External links

• Text of Williams v. Pennsylvania, 579 U.S. ___ (2016) is available from: Justia Oyez (oral argument audio) Supreme Court (slip opinion)
• SCOTUSblog coverage