McAffee v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

47 federal appellate · 3 district · 10 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 65 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “We find reversible error in the trial judge’s refusal to give appellant’s requested instructions Nos. 6, 7 and 8. Each of these instructions would have advised the jury of the elements of one of the three offenses with which appellant was charged and that it would have to find appellant guilty of each element of that offense, beyond a reasonable doubt, before it could find him guilty of that offense. Appellant objected to the court’s failure to give these instructions because the jury had not otherwise been instructed that each of the elements of the offense covered must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt before appellant could be found guilty of that offense. The jury was only instructed that “(t)he defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, and if upon the whole case you have a reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt, you will acquit him” and “(t)he burden of proof, as you have been instructed, is on the State to make out or establish its case to your satisfaction, beyond a reasonable doubt. ” Those instructions are correct, as far as they go. Even though the court had defined the elements of each of the offenses, nothing in the instructions given could possibly be construed as requiring that each element of each such offense must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In this respect the proffered instructions were proper even though it is not necessary that the state prove each fact or circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt, but it is required that the sta”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Peals v. State · McAffee v. United States

2. “*** The purpose of such an instruction is to impress upon the mind of the triers of fact the proposition that guilt depends upon demonstration beyond a reasonable doubt of the existence of each of the several elements which, as a matter of law, constitute the crime charged, rather than upon some vague general notion that the defendant did some sort of wrongful act. Such an instruction is to be contrasted with those which tell a jury that they may not convict if they have a reasonable doubt “upon the whole evidence” or that they may convict if “upon the whole evidence” they are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of guilt. The charge actually given to the jury in the instant case belongs to the latter type of instructions. ***”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Dillard v. State · McAffee v. United States

3. “The District of Columbia law describes the crime of murder in the first degree as follows: `Whoever, being of sound memory and discretion, purposely and of deliberate and premeditated malice * * * kills another, is guilty of murder in the first degree.' The burden of proving each essential element of the offense is placed upon the prosecution, and until each essential element is established to your satisfaction beyond any reasonable doubt, you can not return a verdict of guilty as indicted. You are instructed as a matter of law that before you would be justified in returning a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree you must find that the defendant had formed prior to the killing, with deliberation and premeditation, a purpose to kill the deceased. By premeditation is meant the thinking over, deliberating upon, weighing in the mind beforehand, the deliberate intention to kill. Granted. No objection.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. McAffee v. United States