Hall v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “There is no good reason to suspend the presumption of regularity here. This is not a case in which an extant transcript is suspiciously “silent” on the question whether the defendant waived constitutional rights. Evidently, no transcripts or other records of the earlier plea colloquies exist at all.... The circumstance of a missing or nonexistent record is, we suspect, not atypical, particularly when the prior conviction is several years old. But Boykin colloquies have been required for nearly a quarter century. On collateral review, we think it defies logic to presume from the mere unavailability of a transcript (assuming no allegation that the unavailability is due to governmental misconduct) that the defendant was not advised of his rights. In this situation, Boykin does not prohibit a state court from presuming, at least initially, that a final judgment of conviction offered for purposes of sentence enhancement was validly obtained.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jackson v. State

2. “I find it inconceivable that Hall filed his petition for post-conviction relief without an “independent purpose” other than to overturn the prior conviction, because Hall is no longer suffering any direct consequences of his plea. He filed his petition for post-conviction relief eighteen and a half years after being given “a five-year suspended sentence with two years on probation.” Any complaint he has now is undoubtedly based on his desire to avoid some indirect negative consequence—be that an habitual offender proceeding, difficulty getting a job because of his criminal record, or inability to vote.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jackson v. State

3. “the Boykin decision requires that the record must show, or there must be an allegation and evidence which shows, that the defendant was informed of, and waived, three specified federal constitutional rights: the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and the Sixth Amendment rights to trial by jury and to confront one’s accusers. 395 U.S. at 243 , 89 S.Ct. 1709 , 23 L.Ed.2d 274 . The Boykin Court held that the waiver of the defendant’s rights cannot be presumed from a silent record.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jackson v. State