Ganyard v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It seems to me, further, that the court concluded that Coney's absence from the site of the exercise of the Witherspoon challenges was harmless solely because it assumed that Coney could not have had any input regarding whether a particular Witherspoon challenge should be exercised. While one might disagree with the court's assumption that a defendant can never have any meaningful input to offer on the question of whether his counsel should exercise a particular challenge for cause in such circumstances, it seems to me that the majority reads far more into this portion of the court's opinion than was intended when it concludes that harmful error can occur only when the defendant's counsel actually exercises peremptory challenges in the defendant's absence. The majority focuses narrowly on the words "are exercised" in the language from Coney that "[t]he defendant has a right to be physically present at the immediate site where pretrial juror challenges are exercised." 653 So.2d at 1013 . In Francis v. State, 413 So.2d 1175, 1178-79 (Fla.1982), the court said that "[t]he exercise of peremptory challenges has been held to be essential to the fairness of a trial by jury and has been described as one of the most important rights secured to a defendant." In Mejia v. State, 675 So.2d 996, 1000 (Fla. 1st DCA), review pending, Case No. 88,684 (filed Aug. 6, 1996), we concluded "that the procedural rule set out in Coney is intended to ensure that a defendant's right to meaningful parti”

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

2. “In Mr. Coney's case, "[j]uror challenges... were exercised on two occasions: first, during a brief bench conference after prospective jurors had been polled concerning their willingness to impose death, and second, during a lengthy proceeding at the conclusion of voir dire." [ Coney, 653 So.2d at 1013 ]. Coney was absent only on the former occasion, when challenges for cause were exercised by the state and Coney's counsel. Id. Because Coney neither waived his presence at the bench conference nor ratified the challenges for cause exercised by his counsel, the court concluded that error had occurred. Id. However, because the challenges "`involved a legal issue toward which [Coney] would have had no basis for input,' i.e., the death qualifying of prospective jurors," the court concluded, further, that the error was harmless. Id. (citation omitted). From this, it seems to me relatively clear that Coney was absent only when Witherspoon [Note] challenges were being exercised by counsel—he was present at the immediate site where peremptory challenges (and, perhaps, cause challenges based on grounds other than views regarding the death penalty) were exercised.”

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

3. “Does Coney v. State, 653 So.2d 1009 (Fla.1995), provide a basis for reversal of a conviction when the defendant’s counsel exercised no peremptory challenges?”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 705 So. 2d 567 - Ganyard v. State