Parrish v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Judicial scrutiny of counsel’s performance must be highly deferential.... [A] court must indulge a strong presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance; that is, the defendant must overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action might be considered sound trial strategy. Appellant is not guaranteed error-less counsel or counsel that can be judged ineffective only by hindsight, but rather counsel rendering reasonably effective assistance at the time of trial.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Stanfill v. Commonwealth

2. “Appellant must show that counsel’s performance was deficient. This is done by showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment, or that counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Stanfill v. Commonwealth

3. “That the lawyers ... did not track down every possible expert or piece of evidence available, does not render their assistance ineffective.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. McMillan v. State