Bryant v. Scott’s Empirical Analysis
28 F.3d 1411 · 1994
Citation profile
34 federal appellate · 2 district · 12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 93 later decisions — most recently January 2024 · most notably George Lindstadt v. John P. Keane, Superintendent (2001), Kenneth G. Pavel v. Melvin L. Hollins, Superintendent, Oneida Correctional Facility Eliot L. Spitzer, Attorney General of New York State (2001)
34 federal appellate · 2 district · 12 state decisions — followed in 10 states
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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Missouri v. Continential Insurance Cos. · Herrera v. Collins · Conway v. Statesman Mortgage Co. · Wright v. Wright
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 93 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A]n attorney must engage in a reasonable amount of pretrial investigation and ‘at a minimum, ... interview potential witnesses and ... make an independent investigation of the facts and circumstances in the case.’ [Nealy v. Cabana, 764 F.2d 1173, 1177 (5th Cir.1985).] The failure to interview eyewitnesses to a crime may strongly support a claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, see Gray v. Lucas, 677 F.2d 1086 , 1093 n. 5 (5th Cir.1982) (noting that attorney’s failure to investigate crucial witness may constitute inadequate performance), cert. denied, [ 461 U.S. 910 , 103 S.Ct. 1886 , 76 L.Ed.2d 815 (1983) ], and when alibi witnesses are involved, it is unreasonable for counsel not to try to contact the witnesses and ‘ascertain whether their testimony would aid the defense.’ [Grooms, 923 F.2d at 90 ].”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“ill-equipped to assess his credibility or persuasiveness as a witness.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Thus, we disagree with the district court's conclusion that [defense counsel] was "hog-tied" or "stonewalled" from making any investigation of alibi witnesses. [Defense counsel] knew of three alibi witnesses before trial and should have made some effort to contact or interview these people in furtherance of Bryant's defense . [Defense counsel's] complete failure to investigate alibi witnesses fell below the standard of a reasonably competent attorney practicing under prevailing norms.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.