State v. Blewett’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In Rock v. Arkansas, [483] U.S. [44, 49] [ 107 S.Ct. 2704, 2707 , 97 L.Ed.2d 87 ] (1987), the Supreme Court explicitly confirmed that criminal defendants have a constitutional right to testify on their own behalf. Because the right to testify is a fundamental constitutional guarantee, only the defendant is empowered to waive the right. See Jones v. Barnes, 463 U.S. 745, 751 [ 103 S.Ct. 3308, 3312 , 77 L.Ed.2d 987 ] (1983)(“the accused has the ultimate authority to make certain fundamental decisions regarding the ease, as to whether to ... testify in Ms or her own behalf-”); Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72 , 93 n. 1 [ 97 S.Ct. 2497 , 2510 n. 1, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 ](1977)(Burger, C.J., concurring); United States v. Curtis, 742 F.2d 1070, 1076 (7th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1064 [ 106 S.Ct. 1374 , 89 L.Ed.2d 600 ](1986). Moreover, the defendant’s waiver of his right to testify, like his waiver of other constitutional rights, should be made voluntarily and knowingly. Cf., e.g., Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 242-43 [ 89 S.Ct. 1709, 1712 , 23 L.Ed.2d 274 ](1969)(defen-dant’s guilty plea must be made intelligently and voluntarily because it entails waiver of constitutional rights to trial by jury, to confront one’s accusers, and against self-incrimination); Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464-65 [ 58 S.Ct. 1019, 1023 , 82 L.Ed. 1461 ](1938) (waiver of right to counsel must be intelligently and competently made).”

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