222 W. Va. 622 - Hatfield v. Painter’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “[T]he habeas corpus proceeding was not the first opportunity a court had to address whether the defendant’s due process rights were violated when the trial court determined his mental competency without holding a full evidentiary hearing on the issue. The circuit court’s conclusion that it could address the defendant’s due process claims in the habeas action is clearly wrong in light of the record and of the previous considerations in the previous reviews of the Hatfield cases. Implicit and explicit in Hatfield I and Hatfield II was this Court’s concern with whether due process protections were implemented in accepting the defendant’s guilty plea. Such a determination necessarily included an analysis of the defendant’s competency at the time he entered the guilty plea. Thus, the circuit court in the habeas corpus proceeding was bound by the decisions previously reached by the circuit court in the criminal proceeding, which were affirmed by this Court. The circuit court in the habeas proceeding was without authority to address the issue of the defendant’s competency at the time he entered his guilty plea. ■”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 878 F. Supp. 2d 633 - Hatfield v. Ballard