Chenault v. Stynchcombe’s Empirical Analysis
581 F.2d 444 · 1978
Citation profile
31 federal appellate · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 54 later decisions — most recently February 1999 · most notably Washington v. Watkins (1981), Goodwin v. Balkcom (1982)
31 federal appellate · 4 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Gregg v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Woodson v. North Carolina · Jurek v. Texas · Proffitt v. Florida
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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“clearly instruct the jury about mitigating circumstances and the option to recommend against death.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Spivey v. Zant · Goodwin v. Balkcom“the sentencer ... (must) not be precluded from considering, as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death,”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a death sentence imposed by a sentencer barred from considering mitigating circumstances will be vacated by a six-member majority of the Supreme Court.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.