Lyons v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate ·

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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “State courts are fully qualified to identify constitutional error and evaluate its prejudicial effect on the trial process under Chapman , and state courts often occupy a superior vantage point from which to evaluate the effect of trial error. For these reasons, it scarcely seems logical to require federal habeas courts to engage in the identical approach to harmless-error review that Chapman requires state courts to engage in on direct review.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 143 F. Supp. 2d 273 - Monsanto v. United States

2. “was premised largely on respect for the actual, conscientious review of harmlessness performed by four prior courts — both federal and state — that applied Chapman.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hassine v. Zimmerman

3. “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict obtained.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Lyons v. Johnson