State v. Haggard’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The record indicates the district court may have incorrectly perceived that I.C. § 18-6503 mandates a minimum five-year period of confinement for robbery. It does not. Although the statute says that the minimum sentence for robbery is five years, the minimum period of con finement under the sentence, pursuant to the Unified Sentencing Act, I.C. § 19-2513, may be for a term of less than five years. Moreover, the language of I.C. § 18-6503, that all robberies should be “punishable by imprisonment in the state prison [for] not less than five (5) years,” must be viewed in historical context. In 1947 the Legislature expressly abolished such minimum sentences. See former § 19-2513 as enacted in 1947 Idaho Sess. Laws, ch. 46, pp. 50-51. The 1947 statute created an indeterminate sentencing scheme, under which the duration of “imprisonment” was to be determined by the Board of Correction, subject to the constraints of I.C. § 20-223. This section, as it existed up until the time when the “unified sentencing” version of I.C. § 19-2513 was adopted, clearly shows a legislative intent not to require a five-year minimum period of incarceration in all robbery cases. For robbery and other enumerated crimes, a prisoner under an indeterminate sentence would become eligible for parole when he had served either a period of five years or one-third of his sentence, “whichever is least.” Id. [Emphasis in original.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Hayes