Gregg v. Georgia’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
2,162 federal appellate · 487 district · 4,277 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10,497 later decisions (1,243 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2026 · most notably Strickland v. Washington (1984), Estelle v. Gamble (1976)
2,162 federal appellate · 487 district · 4,277 state decisions — followed in 47 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 Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Bruton v. United States · Jackson v. Denno · Powell v. State of Alabama Patterson
Cited together with Furman v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Woodson v. North Carolina · Proffitt v. Florida · Eddings v. Oklahoma
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 10,497 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“where discretion is afforded a sentencing body on a matter so grave as the determination of whether a human life should be taken or spared, that discretion must be suitably directed and limited so as to minimize the risk of wholly arbitrary and capricious action.”
632 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[w]hen a fragmented Court decides a case and no single rationale explaining the result enjoys the assent of five Justices, 'the holding of the Court may be viewed as that position taken by those Members who concurred in the judgments on the narrowest grounds.'”
71 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain.”
61 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.