Ovalle v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

120 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 120 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A person commits the offense of felony murder if he commits or attempts to commit a felony, other than manslaughter, and in the course of and in furtherance of the commission or attempt, or in immediate flight from the commission or attempt, he commits or attempts to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of the individual. Therefore, if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 30th day of November, 1998, in Harris County, Texas, the defendant, Jonathan David Drew, on or about the 30th day of November, 1998, did then and there unlawfully, while in the furtherance of the commission of the felony of kidnapping of Tina Flood or in immediate flight from the commission of the felony of kidnapping of Tina Flood, the defendant committed an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death of Tina Flood, to-wit: by striking Tina Flood with an unknown object; or If you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 30th day of November, 1998, in Harris County, Texas, the defendant, Jonathan David Drew, on or about the 30th day of November, 1998, did then and there unlawfully, while in the furtherance of the commission of the felony of aggravated sexual assault of Tina Flood or in immediate flight from the commission of the felony of aggravated sexual assault of Tina Flood, the defendant committed an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death of Tina Flood, to wit: by striking Ti”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Cecil Weldon Holland v. State · White v. State

2. “We do not resolve the issue by asking whether the appellant met a burden of proof to persuade us that he suffered some actual harm, as the dissent would have it. No party should have a burden to prove harm from an error, and there ordinarily is no way to prove “actual” harm. Burdens and requirements of proving actual facts are appropriate in the law of evidence, but they have little meaning for the harmless-error decision.”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Webb v. State · Ex Parte Smith

3. “Review of charge on appeal. "Whenever it appears by the record in any criminal case that any requirement of Articles 36.14, 36.15, 36.16, 36.17 and 36.18 has been disregarded, the judgment shall not be reversed unless the error appearing from the record was calculated to injure the rights of defendant, or unless it appears from the record that the defendant has not had a fair and impartial trial. All objections to the charge and to the refusal of special charges shall be made at the time of trial.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Trevino v. State · Drew v. State