46 Ill. 2d 266 - The PEOPLE v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

39 state decisions

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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““In People v. Ware, 39 Ill. 2d 66 , the same attorney represented the defendant and a co-defendant. The co-defendant pleaded guilty and, before he was sentenced, appeared as a witness for the People and gave testimony against the defendant. We held that counsel of necessity had to assume a position of ambivalence toward the defendant and that there was a complete antagonism between the positions of the defendant and the co-defendant. Here the public defender’s client, Lewis, did not plead guilty and testify for the State in the expectation of a favorable sentence as in the Ware case; he obtained complete immunity and the dismissal of the charges against him. We are unable to completely accept the State’s argument that the dismissal of the indictment against Lewis terminated the attorney-client relationship between him and the public defender and that therefore no conflict of interest existed. This approach puts form above substance. While it may be true, technically, that the attorney-client relationship was severed, the fact remains that one of the public defender’s clients went free and testified against the defendant who was sentenced to the penitentiary. Under these circumstances it cannot be said that defendant received the undivided allegiance of his counsel. We are of the opinion that a new trial is required.” 46 Ill. 2d 266, 267-68 . “The only adverse effect as to Barren from such asserted conflict of interest would necessarily be the result of a circumstance in which”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 36 Ill. App. 3d 556 - People v. Halluin