Blackledge v. Perry’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
1,203 federal appellate · 113 district · 1,475 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,536 later decisions (61 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Moran v. Burbine (1986), Abney v. United States (1977)
1,203 federal appellate · 113 district · 1,475 state decisions — followed in 48 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedPerry v. Blackledge (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on North Carolina v. Pearce · Brady v. United States · McMann v. Richardson · Benton v. Maryland · Griffin v. People of the State of Illinois
Cited together with North Carolina v. Pearce · Bordenkircher v. Hayes · United States v. Goodwin · Menna v. New York · Chaffin v. Stynchcombe
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 3,536 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the Due Process Clause is not offended by all possibilities of increased punishment ... but only by those that pose a realistic likelihood of 'vindictiveness.'”
121 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the very power of the State to bring the defendant into court to answer the charge brought against him.”
59 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In order to assure the absence of such a motivation, we have concluded that whenever a judge imposes a more severe sentence upon a defendant after a new trial, the reasons for his doing so must affirmatively appear. Those reasons must be based upon objective information concerning identifiable conduct on the part of the defendant occurring after the time of the original sentencing proceeding. And the factual data upon which the increased sentence is based must be made part of the record, so that the constitutional legitimacy of the increased sentence may be fully reviewed on appeal.”
34 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.