Flanagan v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

33 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “: The Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution, made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, and Article I, § 12 of the North Dakota Constitution guarantee a criminal defendant effective assistance of counsel. In accord with the test established by the United States Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 . . . , a defendant claiming ineffective assistance of counsel has a heavy burden of proving (1) counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness, and (2) the defendant was prejudiced by counsel's deficient performance.”

   9 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sambursky v. State · Rümmer v. State

2. “All courts “require something more than defendant’s ‘subjective, self-serving’ statement that, with competent advice, he would” not have pled guilty and would have insisted on going to trial. “A defendant must thus satisfy the judgment of the reviewing court, informed by the entire record, that the probability of a different result is ‘sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome’ of the proceeding.” This standard “requires a ‘substantial,’ not just ‘conceivable,’ likelihood of a different result.” The petitioner “must convince the court that a decision to reject the plea bargain would have been rational under the circumstances.” This requires an examination and prediction of the likely outcome of a possible trial. “The movant must allege facts that, if proven, would support a conclusion that the decision to reject the plea bargain and go to trial would have been rational, e.g., valid defenses, a pending suppression motion that could undermine the prosecution’s case, or the realistic potential for a lower sentence.” “This standard of proof is ‘somewhat lower’ than the common ‘preponderance of the evidence’ standard.” “[Ejstablishing a valid ineffective assistance of counsel claim where the defendant pled guilty imposes a ‘substantial burden.’ ””

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