Peterson v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis
85 F.3d 39 · 1996
Citation profile
29 federal appellate · 4 district · 60 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 120 later decisions — most recently June 2025 · most notably State v. Cassano (2002), In Re Orange (2005)
29 federal appellate · 4 district · 60 state decisions — followed in 16 states
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 Waller v. Georgia · Press-Enterprise Company v. Superior Court of California Riverside County · Gregory v. United States · Reavis v. Antinore · United States v. Clark
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 120 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A triviality standard, properly understood, does not dismiss a defendant’s claim on the grounds that the defendant was guilty anyway or that he did not suffer “prejudice” or “specific injury.” It is, in other words, very different from a harmless error inquiry. It looks, rather, to whether the actions of the court and the effect that they had on the conduct of the trial deprived the defendant — whether otherwise innocent or guilty — of the protections conferred by the Sixth Amendment.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“1) to ensure a fair trial; 2) to remind the prosecutor and judge of their responsibility to the accused and the importance of their functions; 3) to encourage witnesses to come forward; and 4) to discourage perjury.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) extremely short, (2) followed by a helpful summation, and (3) entirely inadvertent[.]”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. People v. Radford · State v. Moton
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.