State v. Speller’s Empirical Analysis
1949
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 59 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 71 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 1987 · most notably Brown v. Allen (1953), State v. Westbrook (1971)
6 federal appellate · 59 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 Strauder v. West Virginia · Norris v. State of Alabama · Smith v. Texas · Ex parte Virginia · Virginia v. Rives
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 71 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Both the State and Federal Constitutions secure to every man the right to be defended in all criminal prosecutions by counsel whom he selects and retains. N. C. Const., Art. I, sec. 11; U. S. Const., Amend. XIV. This right is not intended to be an empty formality. It would be a futile thing, indeed, to give a person accused of crime a day in court if he is denied a chance to prepare for it, or to guarantee him the right of representation by counsel if his counsel is afforded no opportunity to ascertain the facts or the law of the case. As the Supreme Court of Georgia declared in Blackman v. State, 76 Ga. 288 : ‘This constitutional privilege would amount to nothing if the counsel for the accused are not allowed sufficient time to prepare his defense; it would be a poor boon indeed. This would be “to keep the word of promise to our ear and break it to our hope.” ’ Since the law regards substance rather than form, the constitutional guaranty of the right of counsel contemplates not only that a person charged with crime shall have the privilege of engaging counsel, but also that he and his counsel shall have a reasonable opportunity in the light of all attendant circumstances to investigate, prepare, and present his defense. State v. Gibson, 229 N.C. 497 , 50 S.E. 2d 520 ; S. v. Farrell, 223 N.C. 321 , 26 S.E. 2d 322 .””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.