State v. Simmons’s Empirical Analysis
1997
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 46 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 50 later decisions — most recently September 2020 · most notably 34 Cal. 4th 743 - People v. Monterroso (2004), State v. Edwards (2003)
4 federal appellate · 46 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
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Edwards v. Arizona · Ashe v. Swenson · Payne v. Tennessee · Bullington v. Missouri
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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“During the penalty phase of Simmons’s first murder trial, defense counsel had, in fact, placed much of this [background] information before the jury. That jury, however, decided that the information did not mitigate the aggravating circumstances and sentenced Simmons to death. Considering that the strategy had once failed, and that calling Simmons’ relatives to testify about his upbringing would inevitably highlight the fact that his brother had endured the same upbringing yet had become a successful doctor, we agree [that] ... the penalty phase course of action was ... sound trial strategy.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Simmons v. Luebbers“"These arguments are frivolous. We cannot perceive any way that [the victim's mother's] identification of her daughter in two photographs constitutes victim impact evidence. Nor does the testimony concerning the ordering of the birthday cake fare any better. A full review of [the victim's mother's] testimony shows that the statement was made in the context of determining the timing of [victim's] death. [The mother] testified that [the victim] had not called the week of her son's birthday and that she had not ordered a cake because she was waiting for [the victim] to call."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Simmons also contends that the evidence was insufficient to prove deliberation. The victim, however, was bound at the hands and ankles, had a cloth shoved down her throat and held in place with another binding, and was left in this condition in a bathtub. These factual circumstances and the time necessary to accomplish them justify the inference that appellant deliberated in the murder. In conclusion, we hold that there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable juror to find Simmons guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of first degree murder.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Cummings
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.