Howard v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “... [Traditional distinctions between accomplices and principals have been abolished. Penal Code § 7.01(c). But accepting the assertion that arguably John was less morally culpable than Chedrich because he did not pull the trigger, no actual conflict of interest is shown. That John did not personally shoot the complainant was irrelevant to Chedrieh’s punishment, just as Ched-rich’s lack of a criminal record was irrelevant to John’s. For counsel to point out that John was only a party to the shooting, and to argue that this should be considered in his favor in assessing punishment, would not necessarily cause the jury to assess a harsher punishment against Chedrich. That counsel did not argue John’s lesser culpability to the jury does not in itself prove that a conflict of interest existed.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Kegler v. State

2. “[A]n actual and significant conflict of interest of the degree requiring reversal exists when `one defendant stands to gain significantly by counsel adducing probative evidence or advancing plausible arguments that are damaging to the cause of a co-defendant whom counsel is also representing.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re BLD

3. “Where there is evidence of counsel's `struggle to serve two masters' that cannot be seriously doubted, a finding of ineffective assistance based on counsel's conflict of interest necessarily follows.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re BLD