Gafford v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “"Recently, the Alabama Supreme Court in Ex parte Thomas , 659 So.2d 3 (Ala. 1994), disapproved of the following dicta in Harrell v. State , 571 So.2d 1270 , 1271-72 (Ala. 1990): '[w]hen the evidence shows only that blacks were struck and that a greater percentage of blacks sat on the jury than sat on the lawfully established venire, an inference of discrimination has not been created.' The Thomas court stated: " 'A skilled but racially biased attorney could learn to manipulate the strike process so as to be able to strike a few blacks from the venire on the basis of race, and yet not be called to account for the racially based strikes, as long as some blacks were left on the jury. Such a result should not be approved. " ' " '[A] prima facie case may be made where relevant circumstances indicate an inference of purposeful race discrimination no matter that one or more black persons may remain on the jury.' United States v. Wilson , 884 F.2d 1121 , 1123 (8th Cir. 1989). 'The striking of one venireperson for a racial reason violate[s] the Equal Protection Clause, even when valid reasons for striking some black jurors are shown.' Williams v. State , 548 So.2d 501 , 507 (Ala.Crim.App. 1988), *Page 1352 cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1028 , 109 S.Ct. 1159 , 103 L.Ed.2d 218 . . . (1989). 'Of course, the fact that blacks are ultimately seated on the jury does not necessarily bar a finding of discrimination under Batson [,] see [ United States v. ] Battle , 836 F.2d [1084 ] [at] 1086 [(8th Ci”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bell v. State

2. “' Mitchell v. State , 579 So.2d 45 , 48 (Ala.Crim.App. 1991), cert. denied, 596 So.2d 954 (Ala. 1992).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bell v. State