Hopkinson v. Shillinger’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 2 district · 6 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"8. The torture of Jeff Green may not have been ordered by Mark Hopkinson[.]”

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

2. ““Another matter, they [defense counsel] talked about the possibility of error. There is no such thing as perfection. This system works to the best it can, but there are safeguards built in. That’s due process. The Wyoming Supreme Court, as Mr. Munker said, reviewed the first trial. They found no error in the guilt phase. That went to the United States Supreme Court, and it was denied cert. MR. SKAGGS: Objection, your Honor. There is flatly no evidence of that and if I can’t bring in something there is no evidence of, he can’t either. MR. MORIARITY: Well— THE COURT: Now, let me try and handle it. The jury has heard a lot of statements in closing arguments with reference to matters which technically there is no evidence on. And I won’t talk about who said what, that’s strictly up to you. But I have given everybody wide latitude and I’m not going to stop now. The jury will just sift it out. MR. MORIARITY: Thank you, your Honor. The testimony of Mrs. Barbara Oakley, the clerk of this court, when I asked her if the guilt phase had gone to the United States Supreme Court and had come back from them prior to this testimony, she said, yes, the record revealed that. That is the facts in this case. But the Wyoming Supreme Court sent it back because of error in the first trial on the death penalty as it pertained to the Jeff Green matter. The Wyoming Supreme Court will review whatever action you take in this case. It’s an automatic review. So, the matter of error, the matter of mistake ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hopkinson v. Shillinger

3. ““While, in our supervisory capacity, we might express a preference that officers providing courtroom security in federal courts not be easily identifiable by jurors as guards, we are much more constrained when reviewing a constitutional challenge to a state court proceeding. All a federal court may do in such a situation is look at the scene presented to jurors and determine whether what they saw was so inherently prejudicial as to pose an unacceptable threat to defendant’s right to a fair trial; if the challenged practice is not found inherently prejudicial and if the defendant fails to show actual prejudice, the inquiry is over.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Hopkinson v. Shillinger