Cabana v. Bullock’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

282 federal appellate · 26 district · 417 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 953 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Enmund holds only that the principles of proportionality embodied in the Eighth Amendment bar imposition of the death penalty upon a class of persons who may nonetheless be guilty of the crime of capital murder as defined by state law: that is, the class of murderers who did not themselves kill, attempt to kill, or intend to kill.”

   40 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. Dugger, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, Et Al. · Cole v. Young

2. “"The proceeding that the state courts must provide Bullock need not take the form of a new sentencing hearing before a jury. As indicated above, the Eighth Amendment does not require that a jury make the findings required by Enmund . Moreover, the sentence currently in force may stand provided only that the requisite findings are made in an adequate proceeding before some appropriate tribunal—be it an appellate court, a trial judge, or a jury. A new hearing devoted to the identification and weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors is thus, as far as we are concerned, unnecessary." Id. 474 U.S. at 392 , 106 S.Ct. at 700 , 88 L.Ed.2d at 720 .”

   11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Hammon v. State · 502 So. 2d 409 - Jackson v. State

3. “who does not himself kill, attempt to kill, or intend that a killing take place or that lethal force will be employed.”

   8 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. Dugger, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, Et Al. · State v. LaGrand