Williams v. State’s Empirical Analysis
2007
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 176 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 180 later decisions — most recently October 2025 · most notably Henington v. State (2012), Mancia v. State (2015)
4 federal appellate · 176 state decisions
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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2261 (§ 107 of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Chapman v. State of California · Wiggins v. Smith, Warden · Payne v. Tennessee · Michael Wayne Williams v. John Taylor Warden
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 180 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Under the standard set forth in Strickland, supra, to determine ineffective assistance of counsel, the petitioner must show first that counsel’s performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the petitioner by the Sixth Amendment. A court must indulge in a strong presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance. See Cook v. State, 361 Ark. 91 , 204 S.W.3d 532 (2005). Second, the petitioner must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense, which requires showing that counsel’s errors were so serious as to deprive the petitioner of a fair trial. Unless a petitioner makes both showings, it cannot be said that the conviction resulted from a breakdown in the adversarial process that renders the result unreliable. The petitioner must show there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s errors, the fact finder would have had a reasonable doubt respecting guilt, i.e., the decision reached would have been different absent the errors. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome of the trial. See Cothren v. State, 344 Ark. 697 , 42 S.W.3d 543 (2001). The language,“the outcome of the trial,” refers not only to the finding of guilt or innocence, but to possible prejudice in the sentencing. Lasiter v. State, 290 Ark. 96 , 717 S.W.2d 198 (1986). In making a determination”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Sanders v. State · State v. Barrett“Once again, Judge, it’s totally improper for her in victim impact to tell the jury what she wants them to do which is inferring she wants them to kill him. That’s improper. Telling the jury that they are in a position to do something about this and she’s not, that’s improper. That is not the purpose of victim witness [statements], your Honor. You just give me a continuing objection [and] I’ll sit down and shut up.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Williams v. Norris
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.