Phillips v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““... Thus it is demonstrated that in Loper both the plurality opinion and the dissenting Justice Rehnquist agreed on at least one proposition: the defendant has the burden to produce evidence that his constitutional right to counsel was improperly denied him.... If Phillips’ argument is carried to its logical conclusion, thirty-year-old judgments must recite affirmatively, and in specific terms, that every constitutional right of a criminal defendant, either then known or later discovered and made retroactive, was afforded him. The defendant would not be required to assert that he had suffered the deprivation of a constitutional right, he need not risk perjury, all that is required is that he silently point to a silent record. The administration of criminal justice becomes a chess game totally unrelated to a search for truth. Phillips had a constitutional right to counsel unless he voluntarily and intelligently waived that right. He has neither claimed that he had no counsel in this thirty-year-old conviction nor has he claimed that he waived counsel without knowledge of the extent of his rights.... ””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bell v. Commonwealth · Williams v. Commonwealth

2. “our experience over the last thirty years in the Kentucky legal system convinces this court that substantially all indigent criminal defendants accused of felony were provided counsel in this state long before Gideon....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Robards v. Rees