Rogers v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate · 4 district · 60 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 73 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “involved torture, depravity of mind or the mutilation of the victim.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 801 F. Supp. 2d 1049 - Rogers v. McDaniel · Valerio v. Crawford

2. “On December 3, 1980, Frank and Linda Strode returned from a Thanksgiving trip to their home in an isolated part of Pershing County near Majuba Mountain, where they resided with Frank’s parents, Emery and Mary Strode, and Frank’s sister, Meriam Strode Tread-well. When they entered the parents’ trailer, they found the dead bodies of Emery, Mary and Meriam under a blanket in a bedroom. Emery had been shot three times and stabbed twice with a knife which was left in his chest. A pocket watch discovered in Emery’s shirt pocket had been struck by one of the bullets; the hour hand of the watch was stopped at one o’clock. Mary had been stabbed in the back and shot in the chest. Meriam, whose wrists were bound with an electric cord, died from a single gunshot wound in her back. Emery and Meriam kept daily diaries. The last entry in both diaries was recorded on the morning of December 2, 1980. On December 1, 1980, between 4:30 and 5 p.m., Robert Schott gave defendant a ride from Winnemucca to Imlay. As soon as Rogers climbed into Schott’s truck, he looked nervously in both the back of the truck and the rear view mirror. Defendant introduced himself as John and claimed that he was a musician going to Reno to look for a job. At one point during the drive, defendant blurted out: “You may not believe it but I am a good American. You may not believe it but I’m on your side. I would fight for my country.” On December 2, 1980, between approximately 12:15 and 12:45 p.m., David Hartshorn, a geo”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 801 F. Supp. 2d 1049 - Rogers v. McDaniel

3. “Rogers also claims that the aggravating circumstance set forth in NRS 200.033(8), i.e., that the murder involved torture, depravity of mind or mutilation of the victim, is unconstitutionally vague. He is wrong. We have recently determined that NRS 200.033(8) provides adequate guidance to the jury when the district court defines for the sentencing panel the terms “torture,” “depravity of mind” and “mutilate,” as that definitional language is plain and intelligible. [Deutscher v. State, 95 Nev. 669, 669 , 601 P.2d 407, 407 (1979) ]. In the instant case, the district court defined the terms for the sentencing panel with the definitions approved in Deutscher. The statute is constitutional. In Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420 , 100 S.Ct. 1759 , 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980), the United States Supreme Court held that the application of a statute containing language similar to that found in NRS 200.033(8) was unconstitutional where both the victims died instantaneously. Godfrey is distinguishable from the instant case. In that case, the Court held there was insufficient evidence to prove that the victims had been tortured or mutilated or that the murder had been committed with depravity of mind. In the instant case, however, three victims were repeatedly shot and stabbed. One of Emery’s gunshot wounds revealed that it was a post-mortem wound, or had been inflicted shortly before his death. Mary was first stabbed in the back and then shot in the chest at close range when she was near death. ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 801 F. Supp. 2d 1049 - Rogers v. McDaniel