Whatley v. the State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “provides that it is error for any judge, during any phase of any criminal case, to express or intimate to the jury the judge's opinion as to whether a fact at issue has or has not been proved or as to the guilt of the accused. And that, the defendant's trial counsel must timely object to a suspected violation of the statute and must inform the court of the specific objection and the grounds for such objection, outside of the jury's hearing and presence. Otherwise, appellate review will be limited to whether the judge's comments violated the statute and, if so, whether the violation constituted plain error that affected the substantive rights of the parties.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. WINN v. the STATE.

2. “a court need not determine whether counsel's performance was deficient before examining the prejudice suffered by the Appellant as a result of the alleged deficiencies. The object of an ineffectiveness claim is not to grade counsel's performance. If it is easier to dispose of an ineffectiveness claim on the ground of lack of sufficient prejudice, which we expect will often be so, that course should be followed.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 350 Ga. App. 233 - Guerrero-Moya v. State

3. “Because OCGA § 17-8-57 is a procedural law and it does not provide otherwise, the appellate courts will apply the law as it exists at the time the appeal is decided. Thus, the current version of OCGA § 17-8-57 applies in this case.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. WINN v. the STATE.