United States v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 federal appellate · 2 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “although counsel is available to assist the accused during trial, the likelihood that any lawyer, even a fully competent one, could provide effective assistance is so small that a presumption of prejudice is appropriate without inquiry into the actual conduct of the trial " (emphasis added)). ¶21 While we set forth a new standard warranting substitute counsel, we retain our precedent requiring the trial court to perform an "adequate initial inquiry”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Johnson

2. “after granting one or more substitution motions a court may well decline to grant further motions if it finds that yet another substitution would not remedy the problem. In such a case, it cannot be said that a defendant did not have the Assistance of Counsel for his de-fence, though defendant’s obstinacy may have frustrated it.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 492 F. App'x 401 - United States v. Owen Bowen

3. “The right to be heard would be, in many cases, of little avail if it did not comprehend the right to be heard by counsel. Even the intelligent and educated layman ... requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step in the proceedings against him.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Johnson