126 Wash. 2d 388 - State v. Ritchie’s Empirical Analysis
1995
Citation profile
139 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 139 later decisions — most recently April 2025 · most notably State v. Thorne (1996), State v. Copeland (1996)
139 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 122 Wash. 2d 1 - Matter of Personal Restraint of Young · 114 Wash. 2d 828 - State v. Fjermestad · 118 Wash. 2d 551 - State v. Elgin · 106 Wash. 2d 525 - State v. Oxborrow · 104 Wash. 2d 353 - Public Utility District No. 1 v. Washington Public Power Supply System
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 139 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[F]or action to be clearly excessive, it must be shown to be clearly unreasonable, i.e., exercised on untenable grounds or for untenable reasons, or an action that no reasonable person would have taken.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. State v. KNUTZ · State v. Ferguson“¶28 Sao contends that the trial court “reviewed the facts, but did not specifically explain why it elected to impose 600 months or attempt to tie the sentence length to the aggravators found by the jury.” Br. of Appellant at 40. This assertion is irrelevant. As the Supreme Court stated in Ritchie , a trial court is under no obligation to “articulate reasons for the length of an exceptional sentence.” 126 Wn.2d at 392 . We note, however, as the State pointed out in its sentencing memorandum, that 600 months is a lesser sentence compared to other cases where parents have killed their children. 12”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. State v. Sao“articulate reasons for the length of an exceptional sentence.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. SAO
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.