McDougle v. Maxwell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

312 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 312 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[i]t is generally accepted that punishments which are prohibited by the Eighth Amendment are limited to torture or other barbarous punishments, degrading punishments unknown at common law, and punishments which are so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the moral sense of the community.”

   19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. K.W. · State v. Smith

2. “[c]ases in which cruel and unusual punishments have been found are limited to those involving sanctions which under the circumstances would be considered shocking to any reasonable person.”

   14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Holmes, Unpublished Decision (5-3-2006) · State v. House, Unpublished Decision (3-18-2005)

3. “As a general rule, a sentence that falls within the terms of a valid statute cannot amount to a cruel and unusual punishment.”

   14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Stiles, 1-08-12 (1-12-2009) · State v. Smith