Bledsoe v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 2 district · 82 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 90 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “'eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel's perspective at the time.'”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Murdock · Thompson v. State

2. “According to Kurth, Cody’s initial statement that “Tom did it” was an inte gral element of proof that Tom, rather than Floyd, committed the crime. Kurth testified at the [Kansas district court § 1507] hearing that the decision not to object to Cody’s later statement that “Daddy did it” was a risk he weighed, and that he concluded the risk was worth taking. Considering, as we must, all of the circumstances at the time and granting Kurth all the deference he is due, we nevertheless conclude that his strategy regarding Cody’s statements was objectively unreasonable. Cody was only 2 years old when he implicated first his uncle, then his father. In addition, even without Cody’s statements, there was considerable evidence pointing to Tom as the perpetrator: His gun was the murder weapon; he had purchased the bullets; he initially confessed to having killed C.A.; and he led police to the body, which was buried behind the house where he lived. Kurth could have relied on this evidence to support the defense theory. Instead, he doggedly pursued a strategy that he knew would reveal that Floyd’s own son eventually pointed his small finger at Floyd. We agree with [Jean] Phillips[, a legal expert called by Floyd at the habeas hearing,] that this strategy was “a huge mistake,” particularly when it included no plan to mitigate Cody’s damaging “Daddy did it” statement. Such mitigation might have taken the form of expert testimony on the likelihood that Cody’s original statement implicating To”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bledsoe v. Bruce

3. “[Kurth]: Says Captain Turner spoke with you and you said that Cody would be three in March and he’s saying things that concerned you and that he may have witnessed something or at least Tom, Tom Bledsoe may have told him something about the homicide. Is that correct? [Bolinger]: That he had got his information somewhere. [Kurth]: (Reading) Rose said Cody told her that Tom shot her, boom, boom, boom, boom, and dumped her in the water. Tom put his, Cody’s, blanket around [C.A.] and also put [C.A.’s] blanket around her. Tom put her in a dump truck that goes beep, beep, beep. Tom closed [C.A.’s] eyes and he kissed her cheeks. There was red stuff on her legs. Shoes were wet and her shirt was wet. [Bolinger]: Yes. And later when I talked to Cody, because I talked to him sometime after that, and it was not a dump truck, it was a dump, and that was before I knew, you know, anything.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bledsoe v. Bruce