State v. Blazak’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 85 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 93 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2017 · most notably Walton v. Arizona (1990), State v. Gretzler (1983)
4 federal appellate · 85 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
Relies on Brady v. State of Maryland · Gregg v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Proffitt v. Florida · Santoni v. United States
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 93 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The legislature has made it clear that the death penalty is not to be imposed in every case of first degree murder. The death penalty is reserved for those cases where the manner in which the crime was committed raises it above the norm of first degree murders, or the background of the defendant places the defendant above the norm of first degree murderers.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“1. (F)(5)—The defendant committed [these murders] as consideration for the receipt, or in expectation of the receipt, of anything of pecuniary value. 2. (F)(6)—The defendant committed the offense in an especially ... depraved manner. 3. (F)(8)—The defendant has been convicted of one or more other homicides, as defined in § 13-1101, which were committed during the commission of the offense.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. King“The finding that the murders were committed in an 'especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner' is set aside, but the findings as to the other aggravating circumstances are affirmed. No mitigating circumstances sufficiently substantial to call for leniency have been shown”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Walton v. Arizona
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.