Benton v. Maryland’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
1,833 federal appellate · 152 district · 4,651 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7,635 later decisions (236 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably In the Matter of Samuel Winship (1970), North Carolina v. Pearce (1969)
1,833 federal appellate · 152 district · 4,651 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 Gideon v. Wainwright · Mapp v. Ohio · Griffin v. California · Pointer v. Texas · Roviaro v. United States
Cited together with North Carolina v. Pearce · Ashe v. Swenson · Green v. United States · United States v. Jorn · Blockburger 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 7,635 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.”
216 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Crist v. Bretz · Illinois v. Vitale“The underlying idea, one that is deeply ingrained in at least the Anglo-American system of jurisprudence, is that the State with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity, as well as enhancing the possibility that even though innocent he may be found guilty.”
47 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“there is no jurisdictional bar to consideration of challenges to multiple convictions, even though concurrent sentences were imposed.”
12 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.