536 F. Supp. 1330 - Hooks v. Wainwright’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
4 federal appellate ·
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1292 · 28 U.S.C. § 1915 · 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Wolff v. McDonnell · Bonner v. City of Prichard · Burks v. United States · Rose v. Lundy · Bounds v. Smith
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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The principal deficiency of the inmate law clerk plan ... is that ... it casts, with official sanction, laymen in the role of lawyers. While recognizing that the defendant’s inmate law clerks serve a useful purpose, the plain and simple truth of the matter is that they are not qualified to function as lawyers. They are only law library assistants. The mere thought that a 30-hour “How To” course in legal research transforms an otherwise uneducated and untrained prisoner into someone capable of understanding and formulating meaningful legal reasoning is ludicrous.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Smith v. Bounds“[l]egal research often requires browsing through various materials in search of inspiration; tentative theories may have to be abandoned in the course of research in the face of unfamiliar adverse precedent. New theories may occur as a result of a chance discovery of an obscure or forgotten case. Certainly a prisoner, unversed in the law and the methods of legal research, will need more time or more assistance than the trained lawyer in exploring his case. It is unrealistic to expect a prisoner to know in advance exactly what materials he needs to consult.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Walters v. Thompson“This Court’s experience with veteran writwriters has typically been that, while their petitions generally look nicer and read better than those prepared by most inmates, their legal reasoning remains convoluted and even nonsensical. The conclusions they draw from stated facts are often non sequiturs. The fact that their petitions are usually typed and their legal citations approach a recognizable form does not alter the foundational defect inhering, in most of the petitions— the content!”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.