Detrich v. Ryan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate ·

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

1. “Petitioner failed to present a colorable claim that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to retain an expert to rebut the State pathologist’s testimony that the victim could have made “gurgling” sounds in response to questioning by Petitioner, after sustaining knife wounds to her throat. Contrary to an affidavit submitted by Petitioner, there was no testimony that the victim “engaged in conversation” or was conscious for a long period of time. The victim sustained four serious wounds to the neck, and it is merely speculative to assume that the victim’s attempt to respond occurred after the most serious wound. No prejudice accrued to Petitioner, in any event, because evidence other than Charlton’s testimony regarding the “gurgling” sounds independently supported a finding of cruelty at sentencing. Petitioner’s claim that expert rebuttal testimony would have discredited Charlton’s credibility is unavailing, where overwhelming evidence apart from Charlton’s testimony supported the finding that Petitioner committed the murder. This claim is summarily dismissed.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Detrich v. Ryan