Argersinger v. Hamlin’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
684 federal appellate · 105 district · 2,774 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,306 later decisions (145 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2024 · most notably Strickland v. Washington (1984), Faretta v. California (1975)
684 federal appellate · 105 district · 2,774 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 Johnson v. Zerbst · Gideon v. Wainwright · North Carolina v. Pearce · Gault · Powell v. State of Alabama Patterson
Cited together with Gideon v. Wainwright · Johnson v. Zerbst · Powell v. State of Alabama Patterson · Scott v. Illinois · Faretta v. 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 4,306 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“absent a knowing and intelligent waiver, no person may be imprisoned for any offense, whether classified as petty, misdemeanor, or felony, unless he was represented by counsel at his trial.”
148 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“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.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. North v. Russell · Morris v. Slappy“We are by no means convinced that legal and constitutional questions involved in a case that actually leads to imprisonment even for a brief period are any less complex than when a person can be sent off for six months or more.”
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.