Walton v. Arizona’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
615 federal appellate · 118 district · 1,151 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,439 later decisions (97 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000), Blakely v. Washington (2004)
615 federal appellate · 118 district · 1,151 state decisions — followed in 40 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. A case is still cited after being overruled — to note the reversal, distinguish it, or in dissent. 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 Gregg v. Georgia · Furman v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Duncan v. State of Louisiana · Mullaney v. Wilbur
Cited together with Ring v. Arizona · Strickland v. Washington · Gregg v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Apprendi v. New Jersey
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 2,439 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Trial judges are presumed to know the law and to apply it in making their decisions.”
90 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“must attempt to determine whether the state courts have further defined the vague terms, and if they have done so, whether those definitions are constitutionally sufficient, i.e., whether they provide some guidance to the sentencer.”
27 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Richmond v. Lewis · Arave v. Creech“in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.