Hall v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “‘“[The] failure to conduct a pretrial investigation and interview witnesses is not a per se sixth amendment violation.’ Code v. Montgomery, 799 F.2d 1481, 1484 (11th Cir.1986). A counsel’s decision to not investigate ‘must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel’s judgments.’ Strickland [v. Washington ], 466 U.S. [668] at 691 [ (1984) ]. Also, the question of deficient performance “ ‘is not what is possible or “what is prudent or appropriate, but only what is constitutionally compelled.”’ Payne v. Allen, 539 F.3d 1297, 1315 (11th Cir.2008) (quoting Burger v. Kemp, 483 U.S. 776, 794 , 107 S.Ct. 3114 , 97 L.Ed.2d 638 (1987)).””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Davis v. State · Walker v. State

2. “In the early evening hours of October 15, 1999, Leak entered [the] day care center ... and pulled a gun on its owner. He then corralled the owner and the other adults in the building, a parent and her male friend, and herded them into a bathroom. He took them out of the bathroom in stages and had them bind each other, but placed them in various rooms in the small center. He periodically left them unattended and would return to ask the owner for information related to items in the building. After the victims were bound, another parent came into the center to pay her day care fees. Leak threatened her with a gun, and she complied with his request to bind the remaining unbound victim, and then, he proceeded to rape her. He attempted to rape the other parent as well, physically assaulting her with his hands and gun, and using others to disrobe her. He never followed through on the rape because the victim lied and said she had a sexually transmitted disease .... Leak eventually left, and the victims called for help.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hall v. Thomas

3. “Matters of the defendant’s intelligence and age were considered fully at the hearing on the motion to suppress and throughout each of the trials. While an accused’s intelligence and literacy are important factors to be considered in determining whether he intelligently and voluntarily waived his constitutional rights and made a confession, weak intellect or illiteracy alone will not render a confession inadmissible.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hall v. Thomas