Ward v. Al Lockhart’s Empirical Analysis
841 F.2d 844 · 1988
Citation profile
7 federal appellate · 1 district · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently March 2009
7 federal appellate · 1 district · 4 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 Jackson v. Virginia · In the Matter of Samuel Winship · Patterson v. New York · Woodby v. Immigration & Naturalization Service · Johnson v. Louisiana
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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Ward's possession of three of the ten stolen instruments, his flight from the pawn shop, his call to West Memphis police to determine whether any instruments had been reported stolen, and his lying to police about his ownership of the instruments and presence at the pawn shop were all consistent with the charge of theft and Ward's prior trouble with the law. They were not, however, sufficient to establish the essential element of entry. In addition, Ward's own testimony, though apparently disbelieved by the jury, failed to provide any further support in establishing the requisite elements. The evidence as a whole failed to provide even a scintilla of proof showing that Ward burglarized the school. Without that essential proof, we must conclude that the jury exceeded the bounds of legitimate inference, and engaged in speculation in finding Ward guilty on that count.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“whether the record evidence could reasonably support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. But this inquiry does not require a court to “ask itself whether it believes that the evidence at trial establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” [citation omitted] Instead, the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond reasonable doubt.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”
1 later decision 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.