Shelton v. State’s Empirical Analysis
2000
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently October 2016 · most notably Consumer Protection Division Office of the Attorney General v. Consumer Publishing Co. (1985), State v. Lynch (2003)
3 federal appellate · 26 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
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Simmons v. United States · Griffin v. California · Lockett v. Ohio · California v. Green
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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“COUNSEL: ... [Mr. Shelton] reserves your Honor, most particularly and first and most importantly his right to allocution. He has indicated to me that he is prepared to take the stand and make a statement to the jury, with or without having called witnesses, and that he understands that he has a right to allocution without cross examination. THE COURT: Well, if he takes the stand, he’s not speaking in allocution as such. That will be a separate matter during which he cannot talk about the events of January 11,12 1992. COUNSEL: Excuse me, you Honor. THE COURT: He can’t get into — if he’s speaking in allocution, he cannot discuss the events of January 11 and 12, 1992. COUNSEL: Your Honor, he understands that. He can’t talk about any factual evidence. What he would intend to address them on is his life or his feelings about this matter, and that he believes and understands that if he does that and does not talk about any factual circumstances, that he can do that without cross examination.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Shelton v. Carroll“THE COURT: ... it does not prevent you in any way from speaking to the jury in allocution and to me. Do you understand that? SHELTON: Allocution, I don’t— THE COURT: Allocution is a very technical word, speaking to the jury on your own behalf. I apologize for using a word that [even] most lawyers don’t know. Allocution is a very legalistic way for asking the sentencing authority, whether it’s a judge or a jury, to give you mercy, spare your life in this case, and sentence you to life. That’s what it really means, to explain your humanity, you know. SHELTON: I understand. THE COURT: Whether you want to— you can’t argue about the facts. You can talk about yourself, your background, your upbringing, your education, your folks at home, any alcohol abuse problems, things like that. You can talk about all those things as much as you want. You just can’t talk about the facts surrounding the murder. Do you understand that? SHELTON: Yes.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Shelton v. Carroll“Because the right to allocution is arguably a `substantial right' of a capital defendant, and the law of allocution is ambiguous in Delaware, we waive the waiver rule and consider the merits of Shelton's argument.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Bullock v. State
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.