Johnston v. Singletary’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 federal appellate · 1 district · 6 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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[W]hen a defendant has given counsel reason to believe that pursuing certain investigations would be fruitless or even harmful, counsel's failure to pursue those investigations may not later be challenged as unreasonable.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 815 So. 2d 601 - Carroll v. State · 732 So. 2d 313 - Jones v. State

2. “[I]t is clear that the references to and descriptions of the jury’s sentencing verdict in this case as an advisory one, as a recommendation to the judge, and of the judge as the final sentencing authority are not error under Caldwell — because they accurately characterize the jury’s and judge’s sentencing roles under Florida law.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 392 F. Supp. 2d 1312 - Jennings v. Crosby · 701 F. Supp. 2d 1245 - Duckett v. McDonough

3. “Although we do not discount the value of cumulative testimony in the penalty phase of a capital trial, we cannot say that counsel's decision to present some, but not all, available mitigating evidence with respect to Johnston's family history—particularly when it appears that those individuals who were not called to testify would have testified to essentially the same events Corrine [sic] Johnston described in her testimony —constituted ineffective or deficient performance.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Johnston v. Moore