Gerald v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Aggravated assault can only be established if an assault was committed with a deadly weapon or with an intent to commit a felony. It is undisputed that, in this case, the only evidence of a deadly weapon presented at trial was the firearm. As such, the firearm is the only basis on which the deadly weapon element could be established. Thus, it is impossible to reconcile how the jury could find that [ajppellant committed aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but also specifically find beyond a reasonable doubt that [ajppellant did not possess the firearm during the commission of the assault. Moreover, the jury could not have independently concluded that [ajppellant committed the aggravated assault with an intent to commit a felony. The trial court did not instruct the jury on aggravated assault with an intent to commit a felony, pursuant to section 784.021(l)(b), nor could the evidence here have supported such an instruction. Instead, the jury was only instructed on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. As such, we are left with the jury’s finding, beyond a reasonable doubt, that [ajppel-lant did not actually possess the firearm during the aggravated assault, which negates the critical element that elevates simple assault to aggravated assault.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 205 So. 3d 784 - Proctor v. State