Ayala v. Wong’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate ·

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

1. “As far as [Robert MJ is concerned, Miss Michaels and I had discussions during the selection process here in court, even as late as immediately before the exercise of the last challenge. The court would note that I had passed at one point, leaving [Robert M.] on. I have always felt some degree of reluctance with regard to [Robert M.], and my concern primarily is in the area of whether, after conviction, [Robert M.] would actually vote for the death penalty, and it was my view that taking all of his responses in Hovey into account, and the—some of his responses even as late as yesterday—for example, the following of the Sagon Penn case. It was Miss Michaels doing the questioning at that time, and I did not actually—it would have been possibly a disadvantage or a disservice to inquire further as to his impressions about the Sagon Penn case. I’m concerned about that case because the fact that Mr. Penn, in a very notorious trial here, was found not guilty in a second trial, and allegations of misconduct with regard to the District Attorney’s office and the police were certainly rampant in that case. There’s really no way for me to inquire as to where [Robert M.] actually stood. As far as [Robert MJ is concerned, our scores, a combination of all the factors— Mr. Cameron graded [Robert M.] as a four, Miss Michaels had rated [Robert M.] as a five, and my score on him was four to a five, somewhere in that area. I had before doing any of the selection process, resolved that at the very”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Ayala v. Wong

2. “In holding that Ayala has demonstrated his entitlement to relief under Brecht, we therefore also hold to be an unreasonable application of Chapman the California Supreme Court’s conclusion that Ayala was not prejudiced by the exclusion of the defense during Batson steps two and three or by the loss of the questionnaires.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Ayala v. Wong

3. “compelling” justification; it was not until after Ayala’s conviction , became final that courts recognized that the prosecutor’s explanation in this case (i.e., not revealing his strategy to the defense) was”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Ayala v. Wong