McWilliams v. Dunn
| McWilliams v. Dunn | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued April 24, 2017 Decided June 19, 2017 | |
| Full case name | James E. McWilliams v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Dept. of Corrections, et al. |
| Docket no. | 16-5294 |
| Citations | 582 U.S. 183 (more) |
| Holding | |
| When the conditions of Ake v. Oklahoma are met, the state must provide a defendant with access to a mental health expert who is sufficiently available to the defense and independent from the prosecution to effectively conduct an appropriate examination and assist in evaluation, preparation, and presentation of the defense. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Breyer, joined by Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan |
| Dissent | Alito, joined by Roberts, Thomas, Gorsuch |
McWilliams v. Dunn, 582 U.S. 183 (2017), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that, when the conditions of Ake v. Oklahoma are met, the state must provide a defendant with access to a mental health expert who is sufficiently available to the defense and independent from the prosecution to effectively conduct an appropriate examination and assist in evaluation, preparation, and presentation of the defense.[1]
James E. McWilliams was an incarcerated person on death row. He was convicted of various crimes including murder, rape, and robbery.[1]
The Court ruled 5–4 in favor of Williams on the grounds of the defendant not having access to an independent mental health expert during his trial with the lower appellate court not considering this in the previous appeal, as written in the opinion authored by Justice Breyer.[2]
References
- ^ a b "McWilliams v. Dunn". Oyez Project. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- ^ Hrynkiw, Ivana (June 19, 2017). "SCOTUS rules in favor of Alabama death row inmate". AL.com. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
External links
This article incorporates written opinion of a United States federal court. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the text is in the public domain.