Brewer v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 7 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Appellate counsel did not render ineffective assistance by failing to raise on appeal the sentencing instructions at trial, alleging the trial court erroneously failed to instruct the jury of its option not to recommend a death sentence. More specifically, Petitioner now claims the instructions were inadequate for failing to guide the jury in understanding they could refrain from recommending the death penalty even if the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances. The guidelines for determining competence of counsel require deciding whether counsel’s performance was so deficient that he or she was not functioning as counsel as guaranteed by the Constitution, and, if so, whether this failure to function as counsel was prejudicial, that is, counsel’s er rors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial. Strickland v. Washington (1984), 466 U.S. 668 , 104 S.Ct. 2052 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 ; Broadus v. State (1986), Ind., 487 N.E.2d 1298 . Appellate counsel was not ineffective for two salient reasons. First, there was no objection at trial regarding the failure to make this specific instruction, thereby waiving this issue. Second, the trial court did adequately instruct the jury they could decline to recommend the death penalty if they also found aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances. The trial court gave the following instructions: ‘The Jury may recommend the death penalty only if it finds: (1) That the State has proved t”

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

2. “Petitioner also fails to demonstrate any prejudice warranting relief. He introduced twelve (12) documents at the post-conviction hearing, alleging they comprised the material for which he requested a continuance. The materials consisted of reports dated no later than Petitioner's sixteenth (16th) year, primarily demonstrating a record of juvenile delinquency and a low I.Q., often labeling Petitioner as mentally retarded. However, the trial court, having denied the motion for a continuance due to the sequestration of the jury, appointed a psychologist to examine Petitioner before the trial court imposed sentence. The psychologist's report contained mitigating information equivalent to the reports entered at the post-conviction hearing. Therefore, the trial court took into consideration the psychologist's opinion that Petitioner is in the lowest seven percent of the population as to general intelligence, acts on feelings and impulses without intelligent reflection or analysis and tends not to learn from experiences. Further, the trial court had before it the pre-sentence report demonstrating that Petitioner had problems conforming his behavior to the law from an early age. Accordingly, Petitioner was not prejudiced as the major factors he desired to have considered were presented before a final determination of sentencing was made by the trial judge.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brewer v. Aiken

3. “Although this particular argument [that the alibi witnesses prejudiced Brewer's case] was not advanced on appeal, Petitioner has failed to indicate why he was precluded from raising it at that time. Because post-conviction relief is unavailable for issues available to Petitioner upon original appeal, Petitioner in the instant case has waived this issue. Bailey v. State (1985), Ind., 472 N.E.2d 1260, reh. denied.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brewer v. Aiken