State of Louisiana Francis v. Resweber’s Empirical Analysis
329 U.S. 459 · 1947
Citation profile
309 federal appellate · 54 district · 294 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,000 later decisions (113 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2024 · most notably Estelle v. Gamble (1976), North Carolina v. Pearce (1969)
309 federal appellate · 54 district · 294 state decisions — followed in 37 states
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 Snyder v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts · Palko v. State of Connecticut · Lisenba v. People of State of California · Ball v. United States · Weems v. United States
Cited together with Trop v. Dulles · Weems v. United States · Kemmler · Robinson v. State of California · Gregg v. Georgia
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 1,000 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The cruelty against which the Constitution protects a convicted man is cruelty inherent in the method of punishment, not the necessary suffering involved in any method employed to extinguish life humanely.”
19 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Estelle v. Gamble · State v. Perry“The traditional humanity of modern Anglo-American law forbids the infliction of unnecessary pain in the execution of the death sentence.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Perry · Dawson v. State“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Estelle v. Gamble · State v. Black
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.