Gideon v. Wainwright’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
4,118 federal appellate · 605 district · 9,350 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17,372 later decisions (651 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably Strickland v. Washington (1984), Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera (1966)
4,118 federal appellate · 605 district · 9,350 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.
Relationships
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · Johnson v. Zerbst · Mapp v. Ohio · Powell v. State of Alabama Patterson
Cited together with Powell v. State of Alabama Patterson · Johnson v. Zerbst · Griffin v. People of the State of Illinois · Douglas v. People of State of California · Chapman v. State of California
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 17,372 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The right to be heard would be, in many cases, of little avail if it did not comprehend the right to be heard by counsel. Even the intelligent and educated layman has small and sometimes no skill in the science of law. If charged with crime, he is incapable, generally, of determining for himself whether the indictment is good or bad. He is unfamiliar with the rules of evidence. Left without the aid of counsel he may be put on trial without a proper charge, and convicted upon incompetent evidence, or evidence irrelevant to the issue or otherwise inadmissible. He lacks both the skill and knowledge adequately to prepare his defense, even though he have a perfect one. He requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step in the proceedings against him. Without it, though he be not guilty, he faces the danger of conviction because he does not know how to establish his innocence.”
140 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.”
122 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“fundamental and essential to a fair trial,”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.