Holmes v. South Carolina
Holmes v. South Carolina, 547 U.S. 319 (2006), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court involving the right of a criminal defendant to present evidence that a third party instead committed the crime. The Court vacated the rape and murder conviction in South Carolina of a man who had been denied the opportunity to present evidence of a third party's guilt, because the trial court believed the prosecutor's forensic evidence was too strong for the defendant's evidence to raise an inference of innocence. The Court ruled unanimously that this exclusion violated the right of a defendant to have a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense, because the strength of a prosecutor's case had no logical relationship to whether a defendant's evidence was too weak to be admissible.

The opinion was delivered by Justice Samuel Alito, and was his first opinion as a member of the Court following his confirmation on January 31, 2006. This follows a Supreme Court tradition that the first written opinion of a new justice reflect a unanimous decision. Also, this case had marked the last time in ten years that Clarence Thomas had asked a question during oral argument. This period of silence lasted until shortly after the death of Antonin Scalia, with the oral argument during "Voisine v. United States".
Q11201
United States Supreme Court
Concept
Q159394
defendant
Concept
Q176763
evidence
Concept
Q1456
South Carolina
LOC
Q600751
prosecutor
Concept
Q2314618
forensic evidence
Concept
Q11144
Justice
PER
Q11138
Samuel Alito
PER
Q7410750
his confirmation
UNK
Q11142
Clarence Thomas
PER
Q7099379
oral argument
Concept
Q11156
Antonin Scalia
PER
Q24896286
Voisine v. United States
Concept
Q5883663
Holmes v. South Carolina
EVE
2006-01-31T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
January 31, 2006
DATE
+2006^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
2006
NUMBER
court
significant event
position held