Higgins v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1994
Citation profile
48 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently October 2022 · most notably Flanagan v. State (2006), Mills v. State (1995)
48 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 Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Edwards v. Arizona · United States v. Crews · Pilcher v. State · Hart v. State
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 48 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]f we were to require questioning to cease if a suspect makes a statement that might be a request for an attorney,... police officers would be forced to make difficult judgment calls about whether the suspect in fact wants a lawyer even though he hasn’t said so, with the threat of suppression if they guess wrong. We therefore hold that, after a knowing and voluntary waiver of the Miranda rights, law enforcement officers may continue questioning until and unless the suspect clearly requests an attorney.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“[I]f a suspect makes a reference to an attorney that is ambiguous or equivocal such that a reasonable officer in light of the circumstances would have understood only that the suspect might be invoking the right to counsel, our precedents do not require cessation of questioning.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Thus we now have it on clear authority that an ambiguous reference to an attorney by a suspect after hearing his Miranda rights read, does not require that the interrogation cease. Mr. Higgins’ reference to an attorney in this case was surely ambiguous and hardly amounted to the sort of direct request required to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to counsel. While we cannot say for certain how the Supreme Court would decide the case now before us, the language of the opinion in the Davis case leads us to suspect it would affirm on this point, thus, we do so. [Our emphasis.]”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Boyd v. State
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.