Godfrey v. Georgia’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
644 federal appellate · 75 district · 1,185 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,673 later decisions (187 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2026 · most notably Caldwell v. Mississippi (1985), Eddings v. Oklahoma (1982)
644 federal appellate · 75 district · 1,185 state decisions — followed in 43 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 Jackson v. Virginia · Gregg v. Georgia · Witherspoon v. Illinois · Furman v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio
Cited together with Gregg v. Georgia · Furman v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Zant v. Stephens · Proffitt v. Florida
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 2,673 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“make rationally reviewable the process for imposing a sentence of death.”
191 later decisions quote this exact passage“was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind, or an aggravated battery to the victim.”
71 later decisions quote this exact passage“outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible and inhuman”
35 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.