State v. Halstead’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

44 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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Defendant is not entitled to perfect representation, but only to that which is within the range of normal competency. Karasek v. State, 310 N.W.2d 190, 191, 192 (Iowa 1981). We presume that counsel is competent and the test is whether, under the entire record and totality of the circumstances, counsel’s performance was within the range of normal competency. Snethen v. State, 308 N.W.2d 11 (1981). Rarely do we find failure to preserve error to be sufficiently egregious to deny defendant his right to the effective assistance of counsel under the sixth amendment to the United States Constitution. See State v. Goff, 342 N.W.2d 830 (Iowa 1983); Meier v. State, 337 N.W.2d 204 (Iowa 1983); State v. Hrbek, 336 N.W.2d 431 (Iowa 1983); State v. Schoelerman, 315 N.W.2d 67 (Iowa 1982); State v. Hendren, 311 N.W.2d 61 (Iowa 1981). These cases concerned the failure to participate actively in the trial, misadvice concerning mandatory minimum sentence prior to guilty plea, failure to address the question of voluntariness of inculpatory statements, and failure to object to marshalling instructions in kidnapping case omitting the specific intent element.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Ramey

2. “In our opinion the better rule, however, is that the decision on admissibility should be left to the discretion of the trial court under the circumstances of the particular case, guided by the question of whether the expert opinion will be helpful to the jury in performing its function.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Myers