Crane v. Kentucky’s Empirical Analysis
1986
Citation profile
722 federal appellate · 86 district · 1,355 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,972 later decisions (29 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Arizona v. Fulminante (1991), United States v. Gaudin (1995)
722 federal appellate · 86 district · 1,355 state decisions — followed in 47 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.
Relationships
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Delaware v. Van Arsdall · Jackson v. Denno · Davis v. Alaska · Chambers v. Mississippi
Cited together with Chambers v. Mississippi · Strickland v. Washington · Washington v. Texas · Williams v. Taylor · Delaware v. Van Arsdall
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 2,972 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense.”
181 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"We do, however, think it plain that introducing evidence of the physical circumstances that yielded the confession was all but indispensable to any chance of [Crane's defense] succeeding." Id. at ___, 106 S.Ct. at 2147 , 90 L.Ed.2d at 645 .”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he right to call witnesses in order to present a meaningful defense at a criminal trial is a fundamental constitutional right secured by both the Compulsory Process Clause of the Sixth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Scrimo v. Lee · State v. Jones
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.