Patterson v. New York’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
1,151 federal appellate · 146 district · 2,247 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,519 later decisions (134 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Jackson v. Virginia (1979), Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000)
1,151 federal appellate · 146 district · 2,247 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.
Relationships
Relies on In the Matter of Samuel Winship · Brinegar v. United States · Morissette v. United States · Mullaney v. Wilbur · Snyder v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Cited together with In the Matter of Samuel Winship · Mullaney v. Wilbur · Sandstrom v. Montana · McMillan v. Pennsylvania · Leland v. Oregon
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 4,519 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the Due Process Clause requires the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all of the elements included in the definition of the offense of which the defendant is charged.”
128 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“within the power of the State to regulate procedures under which its laws are carried out, including the burden of producing evidence and the burden of persuasion,”
67 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Such shifting of the burden of persuasion with respect to a fact which the State deems so important that it must be either proved or presumed is impermissible under the Due Process Clause.”
45 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.