High v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 60 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2022 · most notably Pulley v. Harris (1984), Castell v. State (1983)
6 federal appellate · 40 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 Jackson v. Virginia · Gregg v. Georgia · Witherspoon v. Illinois · Swain v. State of Alabama · Sandstrom v. Montana
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 60 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Jose High and his accomplices, Nathan Brown and Judson Ruffin, robbed a service station in [Crawfordville, Georgia] on July 26,1976. The station operator (Henry Lee Phillips) and his eleven-year-old stepson (Bonnie Bullock) 2 were abducted during the course of the robbery. Phillips was placed in the trunk of Ruffin’s ear; Bonnie Bullock was placed in the back seat. High and his accomplices drove the two to a remote site where they were to be eliminated. The eleven-year old was taunted by High as they rode in the back seat of the car: “Are you ready to die? Do you want to die? Well, you’re going to die.” The child begged for his life. Upon reaching a deserted wooded area, the victims were forced to lie face down in front of the car. The victims were then shot by the three defendants. Bonnie Bullock died of a bullet wound to the head. Phillips suffered a gun shot wound to the head and wrist. Having been left for dead, Phillips miraculously survived and later identified High, Ruffin, and Brown. High later confessed to the murder.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“[t]he offense of murder and armed robbery and kidnapping was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind, and an aggravated battery to the victim.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. High v. Head
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.