Williams v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
49
cited by 49 later decisions
6
cited 6 times by the Supreme Court
3
states following
November 1998
most recently cited
2 federal appellate · 2 district · 21 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Greene v. Massey · Amadeo v. Russeau · Giles v. State · Miller v. State · Van Cleave v. State
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 49 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“are not in a position to speculate about what the jury might have done if it had found only two aggravating circumstances instead of three.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“Aggravating circumstances shall be limited to the following: (1) The capital murder was committed by a person imprisoned as a result of a felony conviction; (2) The capital murder was committed by a person unlawfully at liberty after being sentenced to imprisonment as a result of a felony conviction; (3) The person previously committed another felony, an element of which was the use or threat of violence to another person or the creation of a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to another person; (4) The person in the commission of the capital murder knowingly created a great risk of death to a person other than the victim; (5) The capital murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing an arrest or effecting an escape from custody; (6) The capital murder was committed for pecuniary gain; or (7) The capital murder was committed for the purpose of disrupting or hindering the lawful exercise of any governmental or political function. (8) The capital murder was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner.”
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.