Dotson v. Wilkinson’s Empirical Analysis
329 F.3d 463 · 2003
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2021
8 federal appellate · 2 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 Wolff v. McDonnell · Heck v. Humphrey · Preiser v. Rodriguez · Greenholtz v. Inmates of Nebraska Penal and Correctional Complex · Spencer v. Kemna
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“William Dwight Dotson was convicted in Ohio in 1981 of aggravated murder. Under the regulations in place at that time, he was not eligible for parole for fifteen years. If he were denied parole at that point, the Parole Board would be required to give him another hearing within five years. Dotson was denied parole initially, and the Parole Board set his next hearing for ten years later, with a halfway point evaluation in five years. This plan complied with the regulations in effect when Dotson was sentenced. Before that five years lapsed, however, the Ohio regulations changed, and the new parole rules said that a prisoner convicted of aggravated murder was not eligible for parole for more than thirty-two years. Dotson attended his halfway review, scheduled under the regulations in place at the time of his initial incarceration. At that review, however, the Parole Board decided the new rules applied retroactively, and the Parole Board announced that Dotson would not be eligible for parole until 2007. They nevertheless kept the 2005 date scheduled for Dotson’s next hearing. The Parole Board made a determination about Dotson’s parole eligibility, not about his pa role suitability, as was required by the old regulations.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“[Wjhere a prisoner does not claim immediate entitlement to parole or seek a shorter sentence, but instead lodges a challenge to the procedures used during the parole process as generally improper or improper as applied in his case, and that challenge will at best result in a new discretionary hearing the outcome of which cannot be predicted, we hold such a challenge cognizable under section 1983.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“even if successful, will not demonstrate the invalidity of any outstanding criminal judgment ..., the action should be allowed to proceed.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.