Smith v. Armontrout’s Empirical Analysis
857 F.2d 1228 · 1988
Citation profile
10 federal appellate · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently December 2011
10 federal appellate · 2 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
Relies on Ford v. Wainwright · Huntzinger v. United States · Smith v. Armontrout · 692 F. Supp. 1079 - Smith v. Armontrout
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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the capacity to understand the nature and the purpose of the punishment about to be imposed upon him,”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“We think these allegations, assuming their truth for present purposes, are legally insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact as to Smith’s present mental capacity. Subparagraph C is simply a factual recitation that habeas litigation has occurred in the District Court. Subparagraphs B and D accurately state that Smith has changed his mind in the past ..., but competent people do change their minds, even about very important matters, and past changes of mind were among the arguments that we considered and rejected when we considered the question of Smith’s capacity last year. Subparagraphs A and E merely recount Smith’s marriage and his wife’s decision to encourage him to abandon his appeals. We have not heard from Mrs. Smith,[ 4 ] but we assume that the motion is accurate in this respect. Even so, no genuine issue of her husband’s capacity is raised. It is not at all unnatural for someone to consult with his or her spouse about important matters and to be influenced by the spouse’s advice. Nor do we have any reason to suppose that Mrs. Smith is exercising any undue influence, or that she is acting for any reason other than her own sincere belief as to her husband’s best interests.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Smith v. Armontrout
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.