Ronald Smith v. Warden’s Empirical Analysis
2016
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 1 state decisions
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly · Ashcroft v. Iqbal · Lewis Director Arizona Department of Corrections v. Casey · Griffith v. United States · Baze v. Rees
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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[W]e agree with the district court that Smith’s allegations pose a general challenge to the use of á three-drug protocol — and the pain caused by the paralytic and the potassium chloride used as the last two drugs in the protocol— rather than to the use of midazolam per se. The gist of Smith’s claim is that the State’s “continued use of a three-drug protocol ... is unjustified in light of the fact that there are ready and available alternatives which would significantly reduce the substantial risk of severe pain.” In support of the claim, Smith cites (1) the fact that fourteen states have adopted or announced plans to adopt a single-drug protocol and (2) studies recommending that states discontinue three-drug protocols and instead use a single large dosage of a barbiturate because execution team members “typically are not medically trained personnel and administering three drugs creates greater opportunity for error” that would be ameliorated by a one-drug method. Alabama’s switch to midazolam has no bearing on these allegations, which Smith could have asserted any time after Alabama instituted lethal injection per a three-drug protocol in July 2002.”
2 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.