Welch v. Sirmons’s Empirical Analysis
451 F.3d 675 · 2006
Citation profile
23 federal appellate · 2 state decisions
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1291 · 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Chapman v. State of California · Crawford v. Washington · Kotteakos v. United States · Brecht v. Abrahamson
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“DeRosa argues that the victim impact testimony of Tolbert and Milligan amounted to a “hyper-emotional plea for revenge” and focused too much on the emotional impact of the murders. The governing Oklahoma statute defines “victim impact” evidence as follows: “information about the financial, emotional, psychological, and physical effects of a violent crime on each victim and members of them immediate family, ... circumstances surrounding the crime, the manner in which it was perpetrated, and the victim’s opinion of a recommended sentence.” [footnote omitted] This Court has recognized that victim impact testimony should generally be restricted to these issues, though it can also be used to give the jury “a quick glimpse” of the life of the victim, to demonstrate “those unique characteristics which define the individual who has died,” and to show “why the victim should not have been killed.” [footnote omitted] While a substantial portion of the victim impact testimony of Tolbert and Milligan did address the emotional and psychological toll that the Plummer murders caused in their lives, their testimony was not exclusively emotional. Tolbert testified that the murder of her parents caused her to have sleepless nights, nightmares, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Milligan testified that the murders caused her “many sleepless nights, nightmares, acid reflux and upset stomach, post-traumatic stress disorder and all of its components, such as memory loss, depression, tears — oh, so”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Derosa v. Workman“in which the circumstances are sufficient to give rise to a presumption or reasonable probability of bias.”
1 later decision 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.