State v. Brooks’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
46 federal appellate · 525 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 598 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably State v. Madrigal (2000), State v. Conway (2006)
46 federal appellate · 525 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 · State v. Bradley · Smith v. Phillips · New York v. Ferber · Payne v. Tennessee
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 598 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a solitary juror may prevent a death penalty recommendation”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“if clearly probative of truthfulness or untruthfulness.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“The prosecution has the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances of which the defendant was found guilty outweigh the factors in mitigation before the death sentence may be signed. To outweigh means to weigh more than, to be more important than. The existence of mitigating factors does not preclude or prevent the death sentence, if you find beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating factors. However, if you are not unanimously convinced by proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating factors, then you must choose one of the life sentences. If you find the aggravating circumstances and the mitigating factors to be of equal weight, then you must choose one of the life sentences. You shall sentence the defendant to death only if you unanimously find by proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating factors. If you do not so find, you shall consider either a sentence of life without parole eligibility, a life sentence with parole eligibility after serving 30 full years of imprisonment, or a sentence of life without parole eligibility after serving 25 full years of imprisonment. Verdict forms with these four options as to each count will be furnished to you.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.