Kemmler’s Empirical Analysis
136 U.S. 436 · 1890
Citation profile
176 federal appellate · 51 district · 364 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,018 later decisions (137 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2026 · most notably Estelle v. Gamble (1976), Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
176 federal appellate · 51 district · 364 state decisions — followed in 43 states
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 Hurtado v. People of the State of California · United States v. Cruikshank · Slaughter-House Cases the Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans v. The Crescent City Live · Barbier v. Connolly
Cited together with Gregg v. Georgia · State of Louisiana Francis v. Resweber · Trop v. Dulles · Weems v. United States · Furman v. Georgia
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 1,018 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Punishments are cruel when they involve torture or a lingering death . . .”
24 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage“(I)t is safe to affirm that punishments of torture . . . and all others in the same line of unnecessary cruelty, are forbidden by that amendment . . .”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Estelle v. Gamble · State v. Riffe
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.