Adkins v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Counsel’s ‘decision not to investigate must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel’s judgments.’ (Punctuation omitted.) Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510 (11), 123 S.Ct. 2527 , 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003). In Escobar v. State, 279 Ga. 727, 730 , 620 S.E.2d 812 (2005), we held that trial counsel ‘was not ineffective for failing to discover a possible alibi witness of whom he was not informed.’ Here, trial counsel testified at the hearing on the motion for new trial that appellant did not inform him of the existence of any alibi witnesses. It is within the trial court’s discretion to resolve conflicting testimony between trial counsel and a defendant at a hearing on motion for new trial. Boyd v. State, 275 Ga. 772, 776 , 573 S.E.2d 52 (2002); Fitz v. State, 275 Ga.App. 817, 825 , 622 S.E.2d 46 (2005). Trial counsel’s performance cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to locate alibi witnesses whose existence was not brought to his attention. Esco-bar v. State, supra.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Davis v. State

2. “the fact that. . . trial counsel chose to try the case in the manner in which it was tried and made certain difficult decisions regarding the defense tactics to be employed . . . does not require a finding that the representation below was so inadequate as to amount to a denial of effective assistance of counsel.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 293 Ga. App. 41 - Smashum v. State