Irvin v. Dowd’s Empirical Analysis
1961
Citation profile
2,121 federal appellate · 266 district · 3,131 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6,999 later decisions (150 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968), Wainwright v. Witt (1985)
2,121 federal appellate · 266 district · 3,131 state decisions — followed in 50 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedLeslie Irvin v. Alfred F. Dowd, Warden (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 2243 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Brown v. Allen · Tumey v. State of Ohio · In the Matters of Lee Roy Murchison and John Whites · Palko v. State of Connecticut
Cited together with Sheppard v. Maxwell · Murphy v. Florida · Rideau v. Louisiana · Estes v. Texas · Marshall v. United States
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 6,999 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“To hold that the mere existence of any preconceived notion as to the guilt or innocence of an accused, without more, is sufficient to rebut the presumption of a prospective juror’s impartiality would be to establish an impossible standard. It is sufficient if the juror can lay aside his impression or opinion and render a verdict based on the evidence presented in court.”
492 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“No doubt each juror was sincere when he said that he would be fair and impartial to petitioner, but the psychological impact requiring such a declaration before one's fellows is often its father.”
30 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“One of the rightful boasts of Western civilization is that the State has the burden of establishing guilt solely on the basis of evidence produced in court and under circumstances assuring an accused all the safeguards of a fair procedure. These rudimentary conditions for determining guilt are inevitably wanting if the jury which is to sit in judgment on a fellow human being comes to its task with its mind ineradicably poisoned against him.”
17 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Patton v. Yount · Foley v. Parker
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.