Robins v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
9 federal appellate · 62 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 75 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2020 · most notably Valerio v. Crawford (2002), Byford v. State (2000)
9 federal appellate · 62 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Gregg v. Georgia · Furman v. Georgia · Godfrey v. Georgia · Maynard v. Cartwright · United States v. Lane
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 75 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[W]e construe the instruction and the statute (NRS 200.033(8)) upon which it is based as requiring torture, mutilation or other serious and depraved physical abuse beyond the act of killing itself, as a qualifying requirement to an aggravating circumstance based in part upon depravity of mind.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Domingues v. State · Beets v. State“The condition of mind described as depravity of mind is characterized by an inherent deficiency of moral sense and rectitude. It consists of evil, corrupt and perverted intent which is devoid of regard for human dignity and which is indifferent to human life. It is a state of mind outrageously, wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Canape v. State · Smith v. State“The only circumstances by which murder of the first degree may be aggravated are: 8. The murder involved torture, depravity of mind or the mutilation of the victim.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Smith v. State · Pertgen v. State
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.