710 So. 2d 648 - Knight v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]hese principles do not apply to a claim where a specific accusation is aimed at trial counsel—be it the failure to move to suppress evidence, the failure to object to the admission of evidence, or, as here, silence in the face of an objectionable comment by the prosecutor—which has not, and could not have, been raised on plenary appeal. There is a critical distinction between an attack on counsel for failing to object to, and thus preserve review of, a prosecutor's remark and the reviewability by an appellate court of the comment itself to determine whether reversal is warranted. We observe a troubling tendency by trial courts ... to deny procedurally legitimate attacks on trial counsel by relying on the prisoner's failure to raise the underlying, substantive issue on direct appeal when the prisoner has claimed he was prohibited from doing so only because of the very deficiency of counsel in failing to pose the appropriate legal objection.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 985 So. 2d 500 - Rose v. State