Harmon v. Marshall’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 federal appellate · 1 district · 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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[w]e find it difficult to imagine a more fundamental or structural defect than allowing the jury to deliberate on and convict [petitioner] of an offense, for which it had no definition.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 165 Md. App. 189 - Martin v. State · 136 F. Supp. 2d 1071 - Reynolds v. Cambra

2. “There is no object, so to speak, upon which harmless-error scrutiny can operate. The most an appellate court can conclude is that a jury would surely have found petitioner guilty beyond a reasonable doubt — not that the jury’s actual finding of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt would surely not have been different absent the constitutional error. That is not enough .... The Sixth Amendment requires more than appellate speculation about a hypothetical jury’s action, or else directed verdicts for the State would be sustainable on appeal; it requires an actual jury finding of guilty.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 136 F. Supp. 2d 1071 - Reynolds v. Cambra