813 So. 2d 668 - Burns v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

86 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 86 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “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.”

   13 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Harper v. State · Robinson v. State

2. “The benchmark for judging any claim of ineffectiveness [of counsel] must be whether counsel's conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result.”

   13 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Doss v. State · McGilberry v. State

3. “[g]enerally, the Fifth Circuit considers an attorney's actions during voir dire to be a matter of trial strategy, which `cannot be the basis for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel unless counsel's tactics are shown to be `so ill chosen that it permeates the entire trial with obvious unfairness.'”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wilcher v. State · 856 So. 2d 494 - Al-Fatah v. State