State v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he jury was never instructed on the definition of deadly weapon[,] ... its verdict was necessarily incomplete and 'akin to the direction of a verdict for the prosecution on an element of the offense charged,'”

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

2. “Errors that partially or completely deny a defendant the right to the basic trial process, such as the complete denial of a defendant's right to counsel, or adjudication by a biased judge, rise to the level of fundamental unfairness, thereby obviating consideration of the harmless error doctrine.”

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

3. “The fourteenth amendment [to the United States Constitution] and part I, article 15 [of the New Hampshire Constitution] have been interpreted as entitling a criminal defendant to a jury determination on all factual elements of the crime charged.”

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