Whitlow v. State’s Empirical Analysis
2008
Citation profile
457 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 462 later decisions — most recently March 2026 · most notably State v. Gunderson (2010), Heath v. State (2009)
457 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 Strickland v. Washington · Williams v. Taylor · Massaro v. United States · Yarborough v. Gentry · Marzullo v. Maryland
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 462 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“First, the defendant must show that counsel’s performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel’s errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Lacey v. State · State v. Colburn“(1) that counsel's performance was deficient, and (2)that counsel's deficient perforinance prejudiced the defense.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“an objective standard of reasonableness measured under prevailing professional norms and in light of the surrounding circumstances,”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Main · State v. Colburn
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.