Sweeney v. Carter’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 federal appellate · 4 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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “At this point, however, Sweeney runs headlong into the AEDPA [Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996] standard of review. While he was fully entitled to ask the Indiana Supreme Court to apply a Strickland-like standard to his claim, that court was obliged to do so only if existing U.S. Supreme Court precedent clearly established such a rule. Here, it is clear that the Supreme Court has not taken the step that Sweeney needs. Indeed, as far as we can tell, the Supreme Court has not mentioned effective assistance of counsel (in the Strickland sense) and the Fifth Amendment in the same breath, let alone set forth a clearly established right to that effect. To the contrary, the Court has been at pains in the Sixth Amendment context to note that the right to counsel attaches only at the initiation of adversary criminal proceedings, and not before.... From there, it is a short step to the conclusion that the Indiana Supreme Court’s decision cannot be called “contrary to” or “an unreasonable application of’ a decision of the United States Supreme Court.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Sweeney v. State

2. “None of this should be read to condone the wholly inadequate performance of defense counsel in this case. Viewing the facts in nearly any light, that performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness under any account of prevailing norms of professionalism and would easily meet both parts of the Strickland standard (assuming of course that it could be applied at this stage). Any lawyer worth her salt should have known that an extrajudicial agreement that has not received the imprimatur of the court is unenforceable under Indiana law, let alone 'carved in stone.’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Sweeney v. State

3. “`(1) whether the petitioner relied on federal cases that engage in constitutional analysis; (2) whether the petitioner relied on state cases which apply a constitutional analysis to similar facts; (3) whether the petitioner framed the claim in terms so particular as to call to mind a specific constitutional right; and (4) whether the petitioner alleged a pattern of facts that is well within the mainstream of constitutional litigation.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Perruquet v. Briley