Brecht v. Abrahamson’s Empirical Analysis
1993
Citation profile
3,909 federal appellate · 396 district · 786 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10,352 later decisions (109 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Williams v. Taylor (2000), Kyles v. Whitley (1995)
3,909 federal appellate · 396 district · 786 state decisions — followed in 45 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
reviewedBrecht v. Abrahamson (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2111 · 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Jackson v. Virginia · Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Chapman v. State of California · Schneckloth v. Bustamonte · In the Matter of Samuel Winship
Cited together with Kotteakos v. United States · Strickland v. Washington · Chapman v. State of California · Williams v. Taylor · O'NEAL v. McAninch
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 10,352 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict.”
366 later decisions quote this exact passage“whether the error 'had substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict.'”
327 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Schlup v. Delo · O'NEAL v. McAninch“had a substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict.”
80 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.