Lindsey v. Thigpen’s Empirical Analysis
875 F.2d 1509 · 1989
Citation profile
28 federal appellate · 15 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 60 later decisions — most recently July 2015 · most notably McQueen v. Scroggy (1996), Bolender v. Singletary (1994)
28 federal appellate · 15 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 21 U.S.C. § 848 (§ 408 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on Furman v. Georgia · Barefoot v. Estelle · Proffitt v. Florida · Godfrey v. Georgia · Maynard v. Cartwright
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 60 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“those conscienceless or pitiless homicides which are unnecessarily torturous to the victim.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel,”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“explicit finding that the crime was 'especially heinous, atrocious or cruel' " that is required by Lindsey, Bradley urges us to find that the trial court's mere announcement that he had made such a finding without explaining which facts supported that finding, is insufficient to satisfy standards of constitutionality. 59 We need not decide this question, however, because on direct review the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals did recount the facts it found to support its conclusion that the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.”
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.