Yarbrough v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 3 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘We have held that the ABA Guidelines may “provide guidance as to what is reasonable in terms of counsel’s representation, [but] they are not determinative.” Jones v. State, 43 So.3d 1258, 1278 (Ala.Crim.App.2007). “ ‘The danger of adopting the ABA Guidelines as determinative on the issue of a lawyer’s effectiveness was discussed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: “ ‘ “[T]o hold defense counsel responsible for performing every task that the ABA Guidelines say he ‘should’ do is to impose precisely the ‘set of detailed rules for counsel’s conduct’ that the Supreme Court has long since rejected as being unable to ‘satisfactorily take account of the variety of circumstances faced by defense counsel or the range of legitimate decisions regarding how best to represent a criminal defendant.’ Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688-89 , 104 S.Ct. 2052 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 . Such a categorical holding would lead to needless and expensive layers of process with the unintended effect of compromising process.... Recognition of the ABA Guidelines as the minimum prevailing community standard would transform defense lawyers’ judgments into mindless defensive reactions to a potential habeas claim, divorced from the individualized needs of professional representation. Those needs call for more nuanced responses than can be provided by following preestablished mechanical rules of representation. ... “ ‘ “While the ABA Guidelines provide noble standards for legal representation in ”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. McWhorter v. State · 80 So. 3d 965 - Dominique Ray v. State of Alabama.

2. ““[Cjounsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary.... [A] particular decision not to investigate must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel’s judgments. “... [O]ur principal concern in deciding whether [counsel] exercised ‘reasonable professional judgmen[t]’ is not whether counsel should have presented a mitigation case. Rather, we focus on whether the investigation supporting counsel’s decision not to introduce mitigating evidence ... was itself reasonable. In assessing counsel’s investigation, we must conduct an objective review of their performance, measured for ‘reasonableness under prevailing professional norms,’ which includes a context-dependent consideration of the challenged conduct as seen ‘from counsel’s perspective at the time.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 80 So. 3d 965 - Dominique Ray v. State of Alabama.

3. ““[E]vidence about the defendant’s background and character is relevant because of the belief, long held by this society, that defendants who commit criminal acts that are attributable to a disadvantaged background ... may be less culpable than defendants who have no such excuse.” ... A jury hearing this evidence might therefore be led to find [the Petitioner] more culpable for his criminal acts, rather than less.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 638 F. Supp. 2d 514 - Jackson v. United States