174 Ill. 2d 355 - People v. Vargas’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
87 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 88 later decisions — most recently January 2026 · most notably 215 Ill. 2d 167 - People v. Herron (2005), 187 Ill. 2d 91 - People v. Brooks (1999)
87 state decisions
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 122 Ill. 2d 176 - People v. Enoch · 54 Ill. 2d 280 - People v. Pickett · 79 Ill. 2d 564 - People v. Carlson · 128 Ill. 2d 1 - People v. Young · 137 Ill. 2d 195 - People v. Herrett
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 88 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A defendant's liberty, as well as the State's interest in convicting the guilty, are at stake in every criminal trial. A presiding judge's supervision over every stage of the proceedings precludes speculation that jurors may perceive evidence received in the judge's absence as less significant, and impresses upon jurors the importance of the interests of the State and the defendant. A rule that a trial judge's absence from the proceedings is harmless would open the door to abuses which could hinder those interests and undermine public confidence in judicial proceedings.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“First, a judge's active presence on the bench during a criminal jury trial is an essential safeguard which aids in providing a defendant with a fair trial. Second, * * * a judge's absence from the bench might unduly influence the attitude of jurors so as to deny defendant an impartial trial.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“[b]ecause prejudice is inherent when felony trials continue in the absence of the presiding [trial] judge, we regard any showing of demonstrable prejudice, or lack thereof, to defendant either resulting from, or during, the judge's absence as immaterial to the disposition of this issue.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.