Duckworth v. Eagan’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
221 federal appellate · 51 district · 467 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 924 later decisions (26 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Brecht v. Abrahamson (1993), Lockhart v. Fretwell (1993)
221 federal appellate · 51 district · 467 state decisions — followed in 44 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
reviewedGary James Eagan v. Jack R. Duckworth, Warden (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Jackson v. Virginia · Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · United States v. Leon · Fay v. Noia · Rhode Island v. Innis
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 924 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“as if construing a will or defining the terms of an easement.”
29 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Before we ask you any questions, you must understand your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have a right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions, and to have him with you during questioning. You have this right to the advice and presence of a lawyer even if you cannot afford to hire one. We have no way of giving you a lawyer, but one will be appointed for you, if you wish, if and when you go to court. If you wish to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering questions at any time. You also have the right to stop answering at any time until you've talked to a lawyer.”
20 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Miranda does not require that attorneys be producible on call, but only that the suspect be informed, as here, that he has the right to an attorney before and during questioning, and that an attorney would be appointed for him if he could not afford one.”
16 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.