Laws v. Armontrout’s Empirical Analysis
863 F.2d 1377 · 1988
Citation profile
98 federal appellate · 8 district · 9 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 164 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2024 · most notably Laws v. Armontrout, Warden (1989), Brecheen v. Reynolds (1994)
98 federal appellate · 8 district · 9 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 · United States v. Cronic · Darden v. Wainwright · Picard v. Connor · Kimmelman v. Morrison
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 164 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“First, the defendant must show that counsel’s performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel’s errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is rehable.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“indulge a strong presumption that counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he decision not to present evidence at the penalty phase is well within the range of practical choices that are not to be second-guessed, as long as they are based on informed and reasoned judgment.”
2 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.