162 W. Va. 33 - Turner v. Haynes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Rhodes v. Leverette, Warden, [160] W.Va. [781], 239 S.E.2d 136 (1977), held that it is not the role of defense counsel to determine whether a defendant’s appeal from conviction is frivolous. In this holding the Court relied on Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 , 87 S.Ct. 1396 , 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967). Anders, an indigent, was convicted of a felony and sought an appeal. Counsel was appointed to prosecute his appeal, but, upon examining the record and consulting with his client, concluded that there was no merit to the appeal. He so advised the court and noted that Anders desired to file a brief in his own behalf; also, he requested the appointment of another attorney. The court denied the request for another attorney and Anders filed a brief pro se. His conviction was affirmed. Approximately six years later Anders filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the District Court of Appeal, claiming deprivation of the right to counsel in his original appeal. Upon denial of the application, he filed another petition in the Supreme Court of California. This petition was denied and the case was ultimately decided in the United States Supreme Court. That Court concluded that counsel’s bare conclusion, as evidenced by his letter, was not enough. It noted that the “constitutional requirement of substantial equality and fair process can only be attained where counsel acts in the role of an active advocate in behalf of his client, as opposed to that of amicus curiae.” The no-merit let”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Watts v. Ballard

2. “[i]t is not counsel's prerogative to determine finally the merits of an appeal, but, as directed in Anders , `the court—not counsel ... decide[s] whether the case is wholly frivolous.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 137 Wis. 2d 90 - State Ex Rel. McCoy v. Wisconsin Court of Appeals