Bennett v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 4 district · 83 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 93 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““As a prerequisite to relief, erroneous conduct of counsel must be of such character as to have deprived the accused of his constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial, or otherwise of due process. ‘The fact that a criminal, after conviction, is of the opinion that the trial was not properly or wisely conducted by his counsel, constitutes no ground for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus unles.s counsel’s conduct was so prejudicial as to deprive defendant of a fair trial or otherwise deprive him of due process.’ Commonwealth ex rel. Wilson v. Banmiller, 393 Pa. 530 , 143 A.2d 657 . ‘It is easy to condemn the exercise of counsel’s judgment after the case is lost which would be praised if the case were won. But no lawyer can be expected to do more than exercise a reasonable skill which cannot be fairly judged by the result of the trial alone.’ Commonwealth v. Thompson, 367 Pa. 102, 109 , 79 A.2d 401, 404 (1951). ‘The right to counsel and the effective assistance of counsel does not vest the petitioner with the absolute privilege of retroactively assessing the quality of his present feeling as to what might have been better strategy.’ Commonwealth ex rel. Davis v. Maroney, 206 Pa.Super. 68 , 210 A.2d 920, at 922 (1965); Com. ex rel. LaRue v. Rundle, 417 Pa. 383 , 207 A.2d 829 .””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Chase v. State · Cookson v. State

2. ““Where accused was represented by counsel of his own selection, he cannot complain of counsel’s incompetence, errors of judgment or mismanagement of his defense unless the representation was of such poor caliber as to reduce the proceedings to a farce and a sham, as where the representation was so ineffective as to make the conviction a mockery or manifest miscarriage of justice. (Numerous case citations omitted.)””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re King · In Re Bousley

3. ““Massive recrimination against counsel’s trial conduct will avail nothing, where, as in this case, the trial atmosphere was fair, the rights of the accused properly and competently protected and the jury verdict just. “Petitioner was satisfied with the conduct of his attorney during trial as there is no suggestion in the record of any complaint on his part to the presiding justice. Petitioner’s confidence carried through beyond the trial scene until his appeal was denied by this Court; after the petitioner realized that his avenues of escape from sentence had been sealed, it is then, and only then, that he first voiced these charges against counsel.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Chase v. State