Zant v. Stephens’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
1,177 federal appellate · 113 district · 1,550 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,919 later decisions (176 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2024 · most notably Strickland v. Washington (1984), Caldwell v. Mississippi (1985)
1,177 federal appellate · 113 district · 1,550 state decisions — followed in 40 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedStephens v. Zant (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Gregg v. Georgia · Furman v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Pinkerton v. United States · Williams v. People of State of New York
Cited together with Gregg v. Georgia · Strickland v. Washington · Lockett v. Ohio · Furman v. Georgia · Eddings v. Oklahoma
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 3,919 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“an individualized determination on the basis of the character of the individual and the circumstances of the crime.”
86 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“genuinely narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty and must reasonably justify the imposition of a more severe sentence on the defendant compared to others found guilty of murder.”
78 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“even though [they] clearly did not channel the jury's discretion by enunciating specific standards to guide the jury's consideration of aggravating and mitigating circumstances.”
43 later decisions 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.