Smith v. Balkcom’s Empirical Analysis
660 F.2d 573 · 1981
Citation profile
72 federal appellate · 53 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 170 later decisions (7 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2022 · most notably McCleskey v. Kemp (1987), Lockhart v. McCree (1986)
72 federal appellate · 53 state decisions — followed in 21 states
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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Gregg v. Georgia · Witherspoon v. Illinois · Furman v. Georgia · Washington v. Davis · Duncan v. State of Louisiana
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 170 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“as a middle ground that involves a jury with persons who are in effect defendant prone.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“... unalterable opposition to the death penalty is a legitimate disqualification and that the exclusion of such disqualified jurors does not violate the fair cross-section principle of the sixth amendment. The fair cross-section must, in the end, be fair [ Id. at 583]. [2]”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'The fact that jurors have determined guilt beyond a reasonable doubt does not necessarily mean that no juror entertained any doubt whatsoever. There may be no reasonable doubt--doubt based upon reason--and yet some genuine doubt exists. It may reflect a mere possibility; it may be but the whimsy of one juror or several. Yet this whimsical doubt--this absence of absolute certainty--can be real.'”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.