Brooks v. Dretke’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 federal appellate · 3 state decisions

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

1. “Our question is whether ... [the juror’s] conduct is of the genre of cases Justice O’Connor pointed to in her concurring opinion in Phillips : juror conduct not salvageable by post event hearings. We think that the answer to this question is yes. Garcia was married with two young children. As he listened to the evidence in the sentencing phase and participated in the jury’s decision of the State’s contention that Brooks should be put to death he was facing a stunning turn of events in his own life. He could have been sentenced to a year in jail; worse yet, he could have faced a felony prosecution, notwithstanding the State’s interpretation in this case of the older version of the Texas gun possession statute. True enough he was not an employee of the district attorney’s office, but in practical ways his future was even more in its hands. Garcia testified that the sentencing hearing “was one entire week of hell” and he suffered “unrelenting embarrassment.” He thought the matter of his arrest was to be held in confidence, but his “name and this case [was] the head story at twelve, five, six and ten o’clock for four straight days.” We do not suggest that being charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon alone disqualified Garcia for jury service un der state law or that any outstanding misdemeanor charge should support a finding of implied bias. It is rather the sum of all factual circumstances surrounding this juror — in particular, the power of the District Attorney, and the tim”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 634 F. Supp. 2d 633 - United States v. Lecco

2. “At no point did Garcia have any off-the-record conversations with members of the District Attorney’s Office regarding the disposition of his case. Garcia did not vote at the punishment phase in a fashion designed to ingratiate himself with the District Attorney’s Office in hopes of obtaining some species of leniency in the future. Garcia related that his vote to assess the death penalty upon the applicant, was based solely upon the evidence presented during the course of the trial and was wholly unrelated to the charge pending against him. Garcia had no contact with any members of law enforcement regarding his charge, with the exception of the arresting officer.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 634 F. Supp. 2d 633 - United States v. Lecco

3. “Precedent to and implicit in our finding of implied bias is the judgment that reasonable jurists could not disagree with our legal conclusion.”); id. at 433 (”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Brooks v. Dretke