Floyd v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 11 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The testimony of [Floyd’s] trial counsel established that he made a strategic decision to forgo his closing argument in order to deprive the prosecution of its main opportunity to argue its case to the jury. The uncontradicted testimony of trial -counsel was that the prosecutor’s initial closing argument had been quite brief and had consisted of little more than a reading of the indictment. In light of this, Floyd’s trial counsel decided that because he had no persuasive arguments,, his client’s interest could best be served by denying the prosecution, who had the burden of proof, of its chance to argue how that burden had been..met. This is exactly the sort of strategic decision which the United States Supreme Court has held to be virtually unchallengeable in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. at 690 , 104 S,Ct. at 2065. Furthermore, Floyd did not even suggest a manner-in which his trial counsel could have argued in closing that would have affected the outcome of his trial. Thus, Floyd has failed to establish a reasonable probability that, but for his lawyer’s waiving his guilt-stage closing argument, the outcome of his trial would have been different. Therefore, the circuit court’s findings were correct.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Whited v. State · Whited v. State

2. ““ ‘[Floyd’s] second allegation of ineffective assistance is that his trial lawyer waived closing argument at the guilt stage. [Floyd’s trial counsel] did waive his closing argument pursuant to a strategic decision. “‘[Floyd’s trial counsel] based his decision to waive closing argument on two factors. First, [Floyd’s trial counsel] had no strong arguments available to dissuade the jury from convicting his client or- to persuade them to find petitioner guilty of a lesser offense. Second, the prosecution’s initial closing argument was véry brief and it appeared that the prosecution was saving its persuasive argument for last. [Floyd’s trial counsel] thought the potential harm to his client from the prosecution’s second closing argument outweighed any benefit to be obtained from [Floyd’s trial counsel’s] argument. [Floyd’s trial counsel] had made the same decision in other cases with some success.’ ””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Whited v. State · Whited v. State

3. “We have previously held that a trial court's ruling will be affirmed if it was correct for any reason. E.g., Nicks v. State , 521 So.2d 1018 (Ala.Cr.App. 1987), aff'd , 521 So.2d 1035 (Ala.), cert. denied , 487 U.S. 1241 , 108 S.Ct. 2916 , 101 L.Ed.2d 948 (1988).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 629 So. 2d 673 - Holladay v. State