Hernandez v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

555 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 559 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A convicted defendant making a claim of ineffective assistance must identify the acts or omissions of counsel that are alleged not to have been the result of reasonable professional judgment. The court must then determine whether, in light of all the circumstances, the identified acts or omissions were outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance.”

   22 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Saucedo v. State · Vasquez v. State

2. “First, the defendant must show that counsel’s performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel’s errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable.”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Rickie Wayne Selby v. State · Mayhue v. State

3. “Under the Strickland test, the defendant bears the burden of proving ineffective assistance. In addition, when reviewing a claim of ineffective assistance, “a court must indulge a strong presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance; that is, the defendant must overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action ‘might be considered sound trial strategy.’ ””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Mayhue v. State · Chapman v. State