Clark v. Dugger’s Empirical Analysis
834 F.2d 1561 · 1987
Citation profile
22 federal appellate · 4 district · 15 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 67 later decisions — most recently November 2022 · most notably Waters v. Thomas (1995), Delap v. Dugger (1989)
22 federal appellate · 4 district · 15 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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Chapman v. State of California · Lockett v. Ohio · Ohio Bureau of Employment Services v. Hodory · Smith v. Phillips
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 67 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“`The failure to conduct a reasonable investigation of possible mitigating evidence may render counsel's assistance ineffective. Lightbourne v. Dugger, 829 F.2d 1012, 1025 (11th Cir.1987); Thompson v. Wainwright, 787 F.2d 1447, 1450 (11th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1042 , 107 S.Ct. 1986 , 95 L.Ed.2d 825 (1987).”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Williams v. State · Pierce v. State“there were no nonstatutory mitigating circumstances to consider.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"The failure to conduct a reasonable investigation of possible mitigating evidence may render counsel's assistance ineffective. Lightbourne v. Dugger, 829 F.2d 1012, 1025 (11th Cir.1987); Thompson v. Wainwright, 787 F.2d 1447, 1450 (11th Cir.1986), cert. denied, [481] U.S. [1042], 107 S.Ct. 1986 , 95 L.Ed.2d 825 (1987). `After a sufficient investigation, however, "counsel may make a reasonable strategic judgment to present less than all possible available evidence in mitigation."' Lightbourne, 829 F.2d at 1025 (quoting Mitchell v. Kemp, 762 F.2d 886, 889 (11th Cir.1985), cert. denied, [483] U.S. [1026], 107 S.Ct. 3248 , 97 L.Ed.2d 774 (1987) and Stanley v. Zant, 697 F.2d 955, 965 (11th Cir.1983), cert. denied, sub nom. 467 U.S. 1219 , 104 S.Ct. 2667 , 81 L.Ed.2d 372 (1984)). In essence, `[c]ounsel has no absolute duty to present mitigating character evidence.' Id. (quoting Mitchell, 762 F.2d at 889 ). Schaeffer conducted a reasonable investigation to determine the availability of appropriate mitigating evidence and simply made a tactical decision to not present some of the available mitigating evidence. In this circuit, Schaeffer's decision is `accorded a strong presumption of correctness which is "virtually unchallengeable.'" Id. (quoting Sinclair v. Wainwright, 814 F.2d 1516, 1519 (11th Cir.1987) and Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 690 , 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2066 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984))."”
3 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.