Teel v. Tennessee’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 federal appellate · 39 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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “As the Tennessee Supreme Court noted, a conflict of authority exists concerning the availability of harmless error analysis in this situation. Several courts of appeal have held that error resulting from a failure to give proper instructions on the essential elements of an offense cannot be harmless. Hoover v. Garfield Heights Municipal Court, 802 F.2d 168, 175-79 (CA6 1986); United States v. Howard, 506 F.2d 1131, 1133-34 (CA2 1974); United States v. Gaither, 440 F.2d 262, 264 (CADC 1971). Others have held that harmless error analysis can apply. Redding v. Benson, 739 F.2d 1360 (CA8 1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1222 , 105 S.Ct. 1210 , 84 L.Ed.2d 352 (1985); Bell v. Watkins, 692 F.2d 999, 1004 (CA5 1982). The depth of this conflict underscores the importance of the question. Both considerations counsel for a grant of certiorari.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. White v. United States