LaFleur v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 15 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Article 42.12, ... § 3g(a)(2), contemplates a two-step process. First, the trier of fact must make an affirmative finding that the defendant used or exhibited a deadly weapon. Second, after an affirmative finding is made by the trier of fact, the finding shall be entered in the judgment by the trial court. Responding to a Texas Department of Corrections letter to the trial judge relative to whether an affirmative finding had been made and [Poe’s] habeas corpus contentions, the trial judge ordered a judgment nunc pro tunc to correctly recite his findings on the use of a deadly weapon. The order recognized the failure of the original judgment to include a proper finding of the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon.... The applicant contends that the trial court was without authority to enter the nunc pro tunc judgment. As previously stated, Article 42.12 ... dearly mandates that the trial judge enter in the judgment a finding that a deadly weapon was used or exhibited during the commission of an offense, once the trier of fact makes a proper affirmative finding as per Polk . In the present case, the trier of fact undoubtedly made such an affirmative finding. Once this determination had been made the trial judge was required to reflect this by making a proper entry in the judgment. The trial judge retained no discretion to do otherwise. Consequently, the failure of the trial judge to do so was not an error of judicial reasoning but rather an error of a clerical nature. The trial ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Derek Maurice Roots v. State

2. “Since Polk, it has been very well settled that in a jury trial, a trial court is authorized to enter a deadly weapon affirmative finding in three situations: where the jury has 1) found guilt as alleged in the indictment and the deadly weapon has been specifically plead[ed] as such using “deadly weapon” nomenclature in the indictment; 2) found guilt as alleged in the indictment but, though not specifically plead[ed] as a deadly weapon, the weapon plead[ed] is per se a deadly weapon; or 3) affirmatively answered a special issue on deadly weapon use.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Kromah v. State