Coleman v. Thompson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 federal appellate · 1 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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “there is a probability based upon evidence of the prior history of the defendant or of the circumstances surrounding the commission of the offense of which he is accused that he would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing serious threat to society, or that his conduct in committing the offense was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman, in that it involved torture, depravity of mind or aggravated battery to the victim.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Jones v. Murray

2. “[i]n an extraordinary case where a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually innocent, a federal habeas court may grant the writ even in the absence of a showing of cause for the procedural default.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Joseph Forsyth Jr v. Dave Williams Attorney General of the State of Virginia

3. “examine the entire course of the state court proceedings against the defendant in order to determine whether, at some point in the process, the requisite finding as to defendant's culpability has been made.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jones v. Murray