Davis v. Riedman’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Where a statute prescribing a penalty is susceptible of two constructions, that construction which is most favorable to the defendant is to be preferred.” “Where statute creates crime of assignation and provides penalty of imprisonment for not more than one year without classifying the crime as a misdemeanor or felony and without fixing the place of imprisonment, the crime is deemed a misdemeanor and commitment should be to the county jail rather than the State penitentiary.””

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

2. “Where the law prescribes a place for imprisonment, the court may not direct a different place, and if the court does so, the sentence is void and the prisoner is entitled to relief by habeas corpus, but an order for discharge is ordinarily withheld and an order made for the transfer of the prisoner to the proper prison or an opportunity given for the correction of the sentence by the trial court which imposed it.”

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

3. ““Construing the statutes in effect applicable to this case most favorable to the defendant, and in the absence of a showing that the quantum of the punishment bears a reasonable relationship to a sentence in the penitentiary, we hold that assignation, as a first offense, is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in the county jail.” [Emphasis added.]”

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