O'Neil v. State of Vermont’s Empirical Analysis
144 U.S. 323 · 1892
Citation profile
126 federal appellate · 5 district · 188 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 477 later decisions (77 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), Furman v. Georgia (1972)
126 federal appellate · 5 district · 188 state decisions — followed in 38 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 Slaughter-House Cases the Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans v. The Crescent City Live · Brown v. Maryland · Robbins v. Taxing District of Shelby Co Tennessee · The Daniel Ball · Leisy v. Hardin
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 477 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[i]f the penalty were unreasonably severe for a single offense, the constitutional question might be urged; but here the unreasonableness is only in the number of offenses which the respondent has committed.”
16 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'against all punishments which by their excessive length or severity are greatly disproportioned to the offenses charged.'”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Rummel v. Estelle · Carmona v. Ward“the rack, the thumb-screw, the iron boot, the stretching of limbs, and the like, which are attended with acute pain and suffering”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Rhinehart v. Scutt · State v. Perry
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.