Holland v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 11 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Extreme emotional disturbance is a temporary state of mind so enraged, inflamed, or disturbed as to overcome one’s judgment, and to cause one to act uncontrollably from the impelling force of the extreme emotional disturbance rather than from evil or malicious purposes. It is not a mental disease in itself, and an enraged, inflamed, or disturbed emotional state does not constitute an extreme emotional disturbance unless there is a reasonable explanation or excuse therefore, the reasonableness of which is to be determined from the viewpoint of a person in the defendant’s situation under circumstances as the defendant believed them to be.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hunt v. Commonwealth · Keeling v. Commonwealth

2. “However, the triggering event need only be “sudden and uninterrupted.” No definite time frame between the triggering event and the killing is required, so long as the EED remains uninterrupted. In fact, the onset of EED may be more gradual than the “flash point” normally associated with sudden heat of passion. In Springer [v. Commonwealth, 998 S.W.2d 439 (Ky.1999) ], we said “[t]he fact that the triggering event may have festered for a time in [the defendant’s] mind before the explosive event occurred does not preclude a finding that she killed her husband while under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Schrimsher v. Commonwealth

3. “[I]f he acted under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse, the reasonableness of which is to be determined from the viewpoint of a person in the defendant’s situation under the circumstances as the defendant believed them to be.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Keeling v. Commonwealth