Poland v. Stewart’s Empirical Analysis
117 F.3d 1094 · 1997
Citation profile
47 federal appellate · 9 district · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 90 later decisions — most recently May 2021 · most notably Ortiz v. Stewart (1998), United States v. Mitchell (2007)
47 federal appellate · 9 district · 6 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1291 · 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Warth v. Seldin · Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner · Coleman v. Thompson · Wainwright v. Sykes · Brecht v. Abrahamson
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 90 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“First, he contends that by making him choose his method of execution, the state has violated his rights under the Ex Post Facto Clause. While the argument is not entirely clear, it appears to be that the penalty is “enlarged” because Poland is forced to choose his method of execution. However, Poland need make no choice. If he says nothing, he will be executed by lethal injection. The mere existence of the option is not a violation of Poland’s constitutional rights. See Campbell v. Wood, 18 F.3d at 688. Furthermore, the sentence was death, and that sentence remains in place. The change in method does not make the sentence more burdensome and so does not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause. Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U.S. 37, 52 , 110 S.Ct. 2715, 2724 , 111 L.Ed.2d 30 (1990).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“No mitigating circumstances sufficiently substantial to call for leniency have been found.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Poland has not yet chosen lethal gas as the method of execution to be used in his case”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. 98 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5304, 98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 7455 David Fierro Alejandro Gilbert Ruiz and Robert Alton Harris, as Individuals and on Behalf of Themselves and All Others Similarly Situated v. C.A. Terhune, as an Individual and in His Capacity as Director, California Department of Corrections and Arthur Calderon, as an Individual, and in His Capacity as Warden of San Quentin Prison · Fiero v. C.a. Terhune
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.