Mayo v. Lynaugh’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 federal appellate · 3 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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “her husband began beating Randy when Randy was four or five years old, that Randy had suffered several unexplained broken bones, that [her husband] had made numerous death threats to her and her children, that [her husband's] physical and verbal abuse of Randy was continuous, and that at the time of the sentencing phase [her husband], was in prison for having raped a child.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Motley v. Collins

2. “the mitigating evidence presented was not accompanied by jury instructions that would have allowed a juror to give effect to her conclusion that Mayo was less morally culpable or otherwise undeserving of death because of his family background or personal circumstances.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Motley v. Collins

3. “although it may be permissible to allow a district court at any opportunity to evaluate the alleged procedural default, the same flexibility cannot be posited to allow raising a procedural default defense at any juncture in the proceedings”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Magouirk v. Phillips