State v. Abbott’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 federal appellate · 2 district · 27 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““(1) that [he] was not at fault for not discovering the evidence at the former trial; (2) that the evidence is admissible, material to the merits, and not cumulative; and (3) that [the evidence is] of such a character that a different result will probably be reached upon another trial.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Mills · State v. Cook

2. “You should consider all of the evidence in this case, that is, both direct and circumstantial evidence, in deciding whether the defendant was insane or sane at the time of this event. Let me discuss with you briefly this matter of insanity. Under the laws of the State of New Hampshire a person who is insane at the time he acts is not criminally responsible for his conduct. Mr. Abbott in this hearing has the burden of proving to you members of the jury by a preponderance of the evidence that he was, in fact, insane at the time of the acts alleged in the indictment. In layman’s terms, this means simply that he must show you members of the jury that it is more likely than not that he was insane at that time. There is no simple test to use in deciding whether Mr. Abbott was insane at the time of the offense. Insanity is merely a question of fact to be decided by you based on all of the evidence. You may consider the testimony of both expert psychiatrists and the testimony of lay persons who were in a position to observe Mr. Abbott around that period of time. You may consider a variety of other factors, including the presence or absence of a previous mental illness, whether Mr. Abbott was suffering from delusions or hallucinations, whether Mr. Abbott acted impulsively or acted with cunning and plan in committing the acts. None of these is by itself a test for insanity, but each of these is an example of the type of factors that you may consider in reaching your decision on whether”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Abbott v. Cunningham

3. “Dr. Emery, who testified on behalf of the defendant, stated that the defendant suffered from schizophrenia, and was in the midst of an acute psychotic episode on June 7th, the day of the killing. Dr. Emery believed that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, this illness caused the defendant to kill David Staples. The State called Dr. Drukteinis, who also testified that the defendant suffered from a serious mental illness. He diag nosed the illness as schizo-affected disorder, which differs from schizophrenia in that the former permits fairly normal functioning following a psychotic episode. Dr. Drukteinis stated that although it sounded as if the defendant was experiencing a psychotic episode on June 7th, he could find no link between the defendant’s bizarre thinking and the killing. The doctor also noted that the defendant knew that he was taking a human life, and he testified to his observations of other aspects of the defendant’s behavior which suggested that the defendant was not delusional at the time of the killing.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Abbott v. Cunningham