Court Opinion

ID: 9425342
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:14:25.880947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:54.926313
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Douglas,
concurring in the result.
In Williams v. Florida, 399 U. S. 78, 106, I joined Mr. Justice Black in dissent from that part of the Court’s decision which upheld the constitutionality of Florida’s “notice of alibi” rule. We concluded that the decision was “a radical and dangerous departure from the historical and constitutionally guaranteed right of a defendant in a criminal case to remain completely silent, requiring the State to prove its case without any assistance of any kind from the defendant himself.” Id., at 108. One need not go far for the textual support for this position. The Fifth Amendment, written with the inquisitorial practices of the Star Chamber firmly in mind, provides that “[n]o person . . . shall be compelled ... to be a witness against himself.” It seems *480difficult to quarrel with the conclusion that a “notice of alibi” provision contravenes this clear mandate, for the State would see no need for the rule unless it believed that such notice would ease its burden of proving its case or increase the efficiency of its presentation. In either case, the defendant has been compelled to aid the State in his prosecution.
The Court views the growth of “such discovery devices” as a “salutary development” because it increases the evidence available to both parties. Ante, at 474. This development, however, has altered the balance struck by the Constitution. The Bill of Rights does not envision an adversary proceeding between two equal parties. If that were so, we might well benefit from procedures patterned after the Rules of the Marquis of Queensberry. But, the Constitution recognized the awesome power of indictment and the virtually limitless resources of government investigators. Much of the Bill of Rights is designed to redress the advantage that inheres in a government prosecution. It is not for the Court to change that balance. See Williams v. Florida, supra, at 111-114 (Black, J., dissenting).
I agree with the Court that petitioner's conviction must be reversed, but for the reasons stated by Mr. Justice Black in his dissent in Williams. To reverse it because of uncertainty as to the presence of reciprocal discovery is not to take the Constitution as written but to embellish it in the manner of the old masters of substantive due process.