Coulter v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1991
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 46 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 58 later decisions — most recently January 2022 · most notably Bowen v. State (1995), Starr v. Al Lockhart (1994)
4 federal appellate · 46 state decisions
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
Relies on Witherspoon v. Illinois · Lockett v. Ohio · Wainwright v. Witt · Caldwell v. Mississippi · Ake v. Oklahoma
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 58 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Viewed in the context of the colloquy among the prosecutor, defense counsel, and the judge, the prosecutor’s remarks do not, in our opinion, violate the standard set in the Caldwell case. When the objection was raised, the judge responded by saying “the jury has a responsibility to carry out the law.” That deflected the prosecutor’s references which might have been perceived as suggesting the jury’s responsibility was diminished. The prosecutor then agreed, “That’s all I’m trying to say Your Honor.” Defense counsel then concurred in the judge’s statement that it was the jury’s responsibility to “carry out the law as they see it.” After the fleeting reference to the “right of appeal,” the prosecutor definitely focused his argument on the responsibility of the jurors, sympathizing with them in the performance of a “tough job.” While some of the prosecutor’s remarks were on the borderline of diminishing the jury’s role in returning a death sentence, when the judge’s remarks, those of defense counsel, and the prosecutor’s concluding statements are added, we conclude the jury was made well aware of its duty and no error occurred.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Thessing v. State“will review the sufficiency of the State's evidence in the light most favorable to the State to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the existence of the aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“there is reason to believe that mental disease or defect of the defendant will or has become an issue in the cause.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Starr v. Al Lockhart
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.