Oimen v. McCaughtry’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 4 state decisions

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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “advise the court whether, knowing that he may be forced to proceed pro se, he still wanted”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Thornton · Jones v. Berge

2. “But what exactly does it take to effectuate a valid waiver of counsel on appeal? For reasons that are too clear to us to require explanation, appellate courts do not engage in face-to-face dialog with defendants. So a waiver on appeal must be accomplished through written communication. Here the court of appeals told Oimen that if he insisted on having [his counsel] withdraw he might not get a second attorney. It was clear that Oimen wanted substitute counsel, but he also clearly signaled his willingness to proceed pro se if [his present counsel] was his only other choice. Especially given that [counsel]'s only perceived deficiency was that he would not do something which Oimen had no right to insist on, we find that Oimen validly waived his right to counsel.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Thornton

3. “advised Oimen in writing that he might not be granted new appellate counsel if [his present appellate counsel] were allowed to withdraw,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Thornton