Holly v. Smyth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

61 federal appellate · 1 district ·

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

1. ““In all federal criminal trials involving serious offenses, defendants are entitled, under the Sixth Amendment, to be advised of their right to an attorney and to have one appointed for them if they are financially in need. Johnson v. Zerbst, 1938, 304 U.S. 458 , 58 S.Ct. 1019 , 82 L.Ed. 1461 ; Walker v. Johnston, 1941, 312 U.S. 275 , 61 S.Ct. 574 , 85 L.Ed. 830 ; Von Moltke v. Gillies, 1948, 332 U.S. 708 , 68 S.Ct. 316 , 92 L.Ed. 309 . In state criminal trials, however, the Supreme Court has not formally abandoned the distinction, first made in Betts v. Brady, 1942, 316 U.S. 455 , 62 S.Ct. 1252 , 86 L.Ed. 1595 , between capital and non-capital offenses. If the offense is capital, the lack of counsel, unless the right is intelligently waived, is held to be a violation of due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, voiding the conviction and sentence. Powell v. State of Alabama, 1932, 287 U.S. 45 , 53 S.Ct. 55 , 77 L.Ed. 158 ; Williams v. Kaiser, 1945, 323 U.S. 471 , 65 S.Ct. 363 , 89 L.Ed. 398 ; Tomkins v. State of Missouri, 1945, 323 U.S. 485 , 65 S.Ct. 370 , 89 L.Ed. 407 ; Hawk v. Olson, 1945, 326 U.S. 271 , 66 S.Ct. 116 , 90 L.Ed. 61 ; Reece v. State of Georgia, 1955, 350 U.S. 85 , 76 S.Ct. 167 , 100 L.Ed. 77 . In non-capital state cases, on the other hand, the state’s failure to afford a defendant the assistance of counsel is said to violate due process only ‘when there are special circumstances showing that without a lawyer a defendant ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 187 F. Supp. 712 - United States ex rel. Robertson v. Myers

2. “The interests of the several defendants might actually have conflicted. If the attorney was present to aid the others, one trial tactic which could benefit them would be to show that Holly was chiefly responsible for the crimes. In fact, the more severe treatment accorded Holly suggests this possibility.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Case v. North Carolina

3. “in no way relaxes the duty of the District Court to make its own constitutional determination.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Turner v. Maryland