Stephens v. Hall’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 federal appellate ·

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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A federal court may not grant habeas relief unless the decision of the state court either was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States” or “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d). Our review of findings of fact by the state court is even more deferential than under a clearly erroneous standard of review. “[A] determination of a factual issue made by a State court shall be presumed to be correct. The applicant shall have the burden of rebutting the presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence.” Id. § 2254(e). Our review of legal conclusions by the state courts is also especially deferential. A state court decision is contrary to the clearly established precedent of the Supreme Court “(1) if the state court applies a rule that contradicts the governing law as set forth in Supreme Court case law, or (2) if the state court confronts a set of facts that are materially indistinguishable from those in a decision of the Supreme Court and nevertheless arrives at a result different from Supreme Court precedent.” Bottoson v. Moore, 234 F.3d 526, 531 (11th Cir.2000) (citing Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 406 , 120 S.Ct. 1495 , 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000)). An unreasonable application of federal law occurs when the state court “identifies the correct legal rule from Su”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hammonds v. Allen

2. “In Brady v. Maryland, the Supreme Court placed an affirmative duty on the prosecution to reveal any “evidence [that] is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.” 373 U.S. at 87 , 83 S.Ct. at 1196-97 . This duty covers “[i]mpeachment evidence ... as well as exculpatory evidence.” United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 676 , 105 S.Ct. 3375, 3380 , 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). The Brady rule applies to evidence possessed by the prosecution team, which includes both the investigators and prosecutors. See United States v. Meros, 866 F.2d 1304, 1309 (11th Cir.1989).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 622 F. Supp. 2d 1294 - Arnold v. McNeil