State v. Skaro’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[I]t is for trial counsel and not appellate courts to determine trial strategy and tactics.” State v. Wilson, 488 N.W.2d [618, 622 (N.D.1992) ]. The attorney gave coherent and rational reasons for proceeding the way he did at trial.... We will not second-guess the trial strategy and tactics of the attorney. Id. Instead, we follow our cautious directive in Skaro , where we said: “In State v. Motsko, 261 N.W.2d 860, 863 (N.D.1977), Justice Vogel made the following observation which is particularly relevant to our analysis here: ‘It is easy for new counsel on appeal (or for an appellate judge, for that matter) to go through a transcript and find matters that could have been explored further, questions that could have been asked but were not, questions that were asked that should not have been asked, objections that could have been made that were not, and witnesses who could have been called but were not or witnesses who would have been better left uncalled. Hindsight is perfect and criticism is easy. But the lawyer engaged in a trial, who has made an investigation of the facts and has talked to the witnesses, may have his own reasons and they may be very good reasons for not asking a question or making an objection or calling a witness. In all fairness, courts must pay some respect to the right and duty of attorneys, whether court-appointed or not, to use judgment in the heat of a trial, and we must have some doubts about the accuracy of second-guesses later on.’ Thus, we shoul”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. DeCoteau v. State · Stoppleworth v. State

2. “In this analysis, the court works under a presumption that counsel's conduct is reasonable and it is up to the defendant to show that his representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. The court then scrutinizes that attorney’s conduct very deferentially, making a conscious effort to limit the distorting effect of hindsight by reconstructing the challenged circumstances and evaluating the attorney’s conduct from this perspective.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Wilson