Smith v. State

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding trial counsel’s failure to request specific instruction on accomplice testimony amounted to “deficient performance” under the first prong of Strickland
• “A reasonably competent attorney patently is required to know the state of the applicable law.” (quoting Everett v. Beard, 290 F.3d 500, 509 (3d Cir. 2002))
• “In Strickland, the court expressed a strong preference that lower courts should, if possible, decide claims of ineffective assistance of counsel by first deciding if there was any ‘prejudice’ which resulted from the alleged deficient performance.” (Emphasis added.)
• \ ‘There is no reasonable trial strategy for failing to request the cautionary accomplice testimony instruction and corroboration instruction. ... We cannot envision an advantage which could have been gained by withholding a request for th[ese] instruction[s].' \

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

13 cases in this archive cite this case.

• Neal v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2013-11-08· cited 102×
• Hoskins v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2014-09-22· cited 89×
• Brooks v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2012-02-23· cited 32×
• Purnell v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2014-11-21· cited 26×
• People v. Yankaway
  Illinois Supreme Court· 2025-04-24· cited 21×
• Washington v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2010-06-08· cited 16×
• Hoskins v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2011-02-22· cited 10×
• State of Delaware v. Guess.
  Superior Court of Delaware· 2014-07-15
• State v. Leonard M. Taylor
  Superior Court of Delaware· 2016-04-26
• State v. Clark
  Superior Court of Delaware· 2018-03-26
• State v. Simon
  Superior Court of Delaware· 2022-03-16
• Ray v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2022-07-01
• State v. Wright
  Superior Court of Delaware· 2023-02-21

Cites

16 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

• Strickland v. Washington
  Supreme Court· 1984-06-25· cited 123,578×
• Lockhart v. Fretwell
  Supreme Court· 1993-01-25· cited 3,956×
• Dawson v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 1996-04-17· cited 276×
• Clayton Thomas v. Ben Varner the District Attorney of the County of Philadelphia the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania
  Third Circuit· 2005-11-04· cited 166×
• Outten v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 1998-11-19· cited 138×
• United States v. Serrata
  Tenth Circuit· 2005-10-06· cited 91×
• Weddington v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 1988-07-07· cited 54×
• Smith v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2006-04-27· cited 45×
• Cabrera v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2000-03-06· cited 45×
• Bland v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 1970-02-11· cited 36×
• United States v. Gardner
  Tenth Circuit· 2001-03-22· cited 22×
• Mark Henry Lankford v. Arvon J. Arave, Warden, Idaho State Correctional Institution
  Ninth Circuit· 2006-11-07· cited 22×
• Benjamin Franklin Freeman v. Joseph Class, Warden, South Dakota State Penitentiary Mark W. Barnett, Attorney General for the State of South Dakota
  Eighth Circuit· 1996-08-30· cited 18×
• O'NEAL v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 1968-10-03· cited 12×
• DeShields v. State
  Supreme Court of Delaware· 2005-07-13· cited 4×
• United States v. Whaler
  Tenth Circuit· 2007-03-21· cited 3×