Adams v. Wainwright’s Empirical Analysis
709 F.2d 1443 · 1983
Citation profile
52 federal appellate · 3 district · 10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 145 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably McCleskey v. Kemp (1987), United States v. Calderon (1997)
52 federal appellate · 3 district · 10 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Wainwright v. Sykes · Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. · Washington v. Davis · Eddings v. Oklahoma · Sumner v. Mata
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 145 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A tactical decision is ineffective only 'if it was so patently unreasonable that no competent attorney would have chosen it.'”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Disparate impact alone is insufficient to establish a violation of the fourteenth amendment. There must be a showing of an intent to discriminate____ Only if the evidence of disparate impact is so strong that the only permissible inference is one of intentional discrimination will it alone suffice.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. McCleskey v. Kemp · Spencer v. Zant“[t]he Supreme Court held the death penalty disproportionate to Enmund's culpability, reasoning that he personally `did not kill or attempt to kill' or have `any intention of participating in or facilitating a murder.' Here [the defendant] personally killed his victim, savagely beating him to death.”
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.