Williams v. Allen’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

29 federal appellate · 4 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 51 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. McGahee v. Alabama Department of Corrections · Hannon v. Secretary, Department of Corrections

2. “that “[m]itigating evidence unrelated to dangerousness may alter the jury’s selection of penalty, even if it does not undermine or rebut the prosecution's death-eligibility case.” Id. at 398, 120 S.Ct. at 1516 . The Georgia Supreme Court did not make the same mistake in Holsey's case. Nothing in its opinion suggests that it”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Holsey v. Warden · Robert Wayne Holsey v. Warden, Georgia Diagonstic Prison

3. “The court appears to have assumed, based on the fact that [Mr. Daniel’s] sentencing phase presentation included some evidence of abuse, that counsel’s investigation was sufficient to permit a reasonable decision as to what evidence should be offered. However, “[i]n assessing the reasonableness of an attorney’s investigation, ... a court must consider not only the quantum of evidence already known to counsel,- but also whether the known evidence would lead a reasonable attorney to investigate further.” Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 527, 123 S.Ct. at 2538. As discussed above, we conclude that trial counsel abandoned their investigation at an unreasonable point, particularly in light of the information about [Mr. Daniel’s] background that the investigation revealed.- By simply assuming that trial counsel’s investigation was adequate, without considering the reasonableness of counsel’s decision to limit the scope of their inquiry, the Alabama court unreasonably applied Strickland. See id. at 527-28, 123 S.Ct. at 2538.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Daniel v. Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections