Walker v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

44 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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “First, there must be an error or defect - some sort of deviation from a legal rule - that has not been intentionally relinquished or abandoned, i.e., affirmatively waived, by the appellant. Second, the legal error must be clear or obvious, rather than subject to reasonable dispute. Third, the error must have affected the appellant's substantial rights, which in the ordinary case means he must demonstrate that it affected the outcome of the trial court proceedings. Fourth and finally, if the above three prongs are satisfied, the appellate court has the discretion to remedy the error - discretion which ought to be exercised only if the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Satisfying all four prongs of this standard is difficult, as it should be.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 350 Ga. App. 852 - Bashir v. State · Chapman v. State

2. “a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Evans v. State · Watson v. State

3. “decisions as to what witnesses and other evidence to present are matters of trial strategy and are ineffective only if unreasonable [decisions] that no competent attorney would make.”

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