Case Name: Commonwealth versus Simeon Williams
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1816-10
Citations: 12 Tyng 501
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth versus Simeon Williams.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 13
Pages: 400–400

Head Matter:
Commonwealth versus Simeon Williams.
Defendants in criminal cases, not capital, must summon their witnesses at their own expense.
The defendant being arraigned upon an indictment for burglary in the second degree, and having pleaded not guilty, Hoar moved the Court on his behalf, to direct that the names of certain witnesses, necessary to his defence, should be inserted in the Commonwealth’s process for the witnesses for the prosecution, the defendant being very poor.
Morton (Attorney-General)
opposed the motion, and observed that the law had made sufficient provision for criminals in such case.
stat. 1791, c. 53, § 6,.

Opinion:
The Court said, this was granted in capital trials only, in favor of life ; and the motion was overruled.