Williams Rule

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The Williams Rule (English as Williams rule) is one of the Williams vs. judgment. Florida ( 110 So 2d 654 [ Fla. , 1959 ] ) outgoing judge-made law in the Criminal Procedure Law of the State of Florida. After the Williams rule relevant evidence accompanying offenses can only be placed in a jury trial if they do not serve the "bad character " ( "bad character" ), or to prove "criminal disposition " ( "criminal propensity" ) of the accused, but a motive, the intent, the knowledge, the mode operandi or absence of wrongdoing are rather suitable to show.

Subsequent judgments in the state of Florida have defined further the applicability of the Williams rule in criminal procedure and shaped. Different scales for the " relevance" of the evidence be applied depending on the design variant of the rule.

The Congress of Florida has codified the Williams rule in Florida Statue sec 90 404 (2).

In the case Akers vs. State (352 So 2d 97) Florida Court of Appeals for the Fourth District also stated that the evidence of another crime on a regular basis can not be inserted into a case, except its relevance to the present case is shown by evidence. The court ruled in Akers " if the prosecution insists false alarm regarding the Williams rule to beat, they could fall on deaf ears ultimately the court. "

Critics of the way the Williams rule is applied by the prosecution often say that the criminal courts is not sufficient to require proof of the existence of sufficient relevance to be negotiated criminal case before allowing the prosecution evidence which falls under the Williams rule, teach. This, according to critics, the evidence will be used against the rule for showing bad character and criminal disposition of the defendant.