Snow v. Sirmons’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

30 federal appellate · 5 district · 1 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 60 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim— (1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Magnan v. Trammell · Cole v. Trammell

2. “review the cumulative impact of the withheld evidence; its utility to the defense as well as its potentially damaging impact on the prosecution's case. Furthermore, . . . [courts should] evaluate the materiality of withheld evidence in light of the entire record in order to determine if the omitted evidence creates a reasonable doubt that did not otherwise exist. What might be considered insignificant evidence in a strong case might suffice to disturb an already questionable verdict.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Simpson v. Carpenter · Trammell v. McKune

3. “Th[e] question is not wh[at] the trial judge should have [done.] It is not even whether it was an abuse of discretion for her to have done so — the applicable standard on direct review. The question under AEDPA is instead whether the determination of the [State] Supreme Court ... was “an unreasonable application of ... clearly established Federal law.” [28 U.S.C. § ] 2254(d)(1). We have explained that “an unreasonable application of federal law is different from an incorrect application of federal law.” Indeed, “a federal habeas court may not issue the writ simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly.” Rather, that application must be “objectively unreasonable.” This distinction creates “a substantially higher threshold” for obtaining relief than de novo review. AEDPA thus imposes a “highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings,” and “demands that state-court decisions be given the benefit of the doubt.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hooks v. Workman