Ford v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 53 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 67 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2001 · most notably Perry v. State (1982), Henry v. State (1983)
2 federal appellate · 53 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 Witherspoon v. Illinois · Swain v. State of Alabama · Calero-Toledo v. Pearson Yacht Leasing Co. · Alford v. State · Collins 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 67 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Ford should pay for the crime he committed, but our system cannot allow him to pay a price that is not fairly set by an impartial jury considering only relevant evidence in an atmosphere devoid of passion and prejudice.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“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“[Safeguards have been adopted by Canon 3(A)(7) of the Code. A willful disobedience of this Canon would, no doubt, be dealt with in an appropriate manner which could go so far as to cause a retrial of the case or result in other action by this court. Since the trial of the appellant had been completed [when a camera was allowed] and the only thing left to do was to sentence him and only one sentence was to be imposed, we cannot hold that there was any prejudice to the appellant as a result of coverage by the media without prior approval.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Smith v. State
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.