Bertolotti v. Dugger’s Empirical Analysis
883 F.2d 1503 · 1989
Citation profile
22 federal appellate · 1 district · 22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 89 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2019 · most notably Lambrix v. Singletary (1997), Waters v. Thomas (1995)
22 federal appellate · 1 district · 22 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.
Appellate journey
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Faretta v. California · Wainwright v. Sykes · Gregg v. Georgia · Cuyler v. Sullivan
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 89 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[W]hen a defendant has given counsel reason to believe that pursuing certain investigations would be fruitless or even harmful, counsel's failure to pursue those investigations may not later be challenged as unreasonable.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Florida may narrow the class of death-eligible defendants at either the guilt phase or the penalty phase of capital trials. Moreover, consistent with the judge’s instructions, the jury could have found Bertolotti guilty of felony murder and yet still not have concluded that the parallel aggravating circumstance justified the imposition of capital punishment; nor need the sentencing judge have agreed with the jury’s determination that felony murder had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt ... In no sense did the jury’s verdict of felony murder automatically predestine the judge’s imposition of Florida’s highest penalty. Id. at 1527-28.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Although publicity concerning a defendant’s involvement in other crimes is relevant in presuming jury prejudice, especially if the defendant’s involvement in that crime is inadmissible in the guilt/innocence phase, Murphy stands for the proposition that prejudice is not presumed simply because the defendant’s criminal record is well publicized.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.