compulsory process
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 388 U.S. 14 - Washington v. Texas · 1967Most cited · 5,698 citing opinions
The right to offer the testimony of witnesses, and to compel their attendance, if necessary, is in plain terms the right to present a defense, the right to present the defendant's version of the facts as well as the prosecution's to the jury so it may decide where the truth lies. Just as an accused has the right to confront the prosecution's witnesses for the purpose of challenging their testimony, he has the right to present his own witnesses to establish a defense. This right is a fundamental element of due process of law.
How often courts cite the case defining “compulsory process”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “compulsory process” — 5,692 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.