Coleman v. Balkcom, Warden’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
146 federal appellate · 5 district · 45 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 278 later decisions (8 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Kyles v. Whitley (1995), United States v. Birges (1984)
146 federal appellate · 5 district · 45 state decisions — followed in 11 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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1651 · 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 2244 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Neil v. Biggers · Gregg v. Georgia · Furman v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Washington v. Texas
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 278 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The deterrent value of any punishment is, of course, related to the promptness with which it is inflicted.... [T]he deterrent value of incarceration during that period of uncertainty [on death row] may well be comparable to the consequences of the ultimate step itself.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“this Court and the lower federal courts have converted the constitutional limits upon imposition of the death penalty by the States and the Federal Government into arcane niceties which parallel the equity court practices described in Charles Dickens'”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Coleman v. McCormick“Because of the unique finality of the death penalty, its imposition must be the result of careful procedures and must survive close scrutiny on post-trial review.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Bass v. Wj Estelle
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.