40 Ill. 2d 562 - The PEOPLE v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1968
Citation profile
35 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 35 later decisions — most recently February 2026 · most notably 183 Ill. 2d 366 - People v. Coleman (1998), 47 Ill. 2d 42 - The PEOPLE v. Stovall (1970)
35 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
Relies on 34 Ill. 2d 402 - The PEOPLE v. Ashley · People v. Reeves · People v. Jennings · 37 Ill. 2d 27 - The PEOPLE v. Evans · People v. Bernatowicz
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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““While appellate counsel asserts defendant’s representation in the post-conviction hearing was inadequate in that leave to amend .the petition should have been sought, no motion for leave to amend was there made nor does there appear "any reason to believe the petition could have been successfully amended.” ( 40 Ill.2d 562, 564 .) '”
1 later decision 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.