Collins v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently November 2020 · most notably Collins v. State (1977), Collins v. Al Lockhart (1985)
24 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 Furman v. Georgia · Gerstein v. Pugh · Kemmler · State of Louisiana Francis v. Resweber · 283 So. 2d 1 - State v. Dixon
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In a related point for reversal the appellant argues that death by electrocution is unconstitutionally cruel. Counsel concedes that the Supreme Court has upheld this method of capital punishment. Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, 329 U.S. 459 (1947); In re Kimmler, 136 U.S. 436 (1890). It is insisted, however, on the basis of books or articles having to do with capital punishment, that death by electrocution is not necessarily instantaneous and may subject the condemned person to extreme pain. We are not convinced by this argument. As the court indicated in Kimmler, supra, the constitution prohibits punishments involving torture and other unnecessary cruelty. It is doubtless true that some pain may attend any form of execution, whether by electrocution, hanging, the gas chamber, or the firing squad. But the record contains no proof on the subject, as it did in Kimmler, and we certainly cannot take judicial notice that electrocution is needlessly cruel.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Ruiz v. State“the capital felony was committed for pecuniary gain.”
1 later decision 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.