Cartwright v. Maynard’s Empirical Analysis
822 F.2d 1477 · 1987
Citation profile
54 federal appellate · 3 district · 34 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 132 later decisions (6 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2023 · most notably Maynard v. Cartwright (1988), Walton v. Arizona (1990)
54 federal appellate · 3 district · 34 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.
Appellate journey
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2243 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Gregg v. Georgia · Furman v. Georgia · Ake v. Oklahoma · Eddings v. Oklahoma · Superintendent Massachusetts Correctional Institution Walpole v. Hill
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 132 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Vague terms do not suddenly become clear when they are defined by reference to other vague terms.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Arave v. Creech · Smith v. Dixon“means extremely wicked or shockingly evil;”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.