137 N.C. App. 37 - State v. Lancaster’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

30 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he indictment charged defendant with kidnapping by “confining, restraining, and removing” the victim. The jury instruction allowed a conviction upon a showing of either confining, restraining, or removing, which is not an “abstract theory not supported by the bill of indictment.” . . . Defendant argues that by asserting three theories in the indictment, the State has confined itself to proving that all three theories were used in order to convict the defendant. We disagree. . . . Since an indictment need only allege one statutory theory, an indictment alleging all three theories is sufficient and puts the defendant on notice that the State intends to show that the defendant committed kidnapping in any one of the three theories. The jury instruction correctly allowed any one of the three theories to serve as the basis for a finding of kidnapping; therefore, the jury instruction accurately reflected the three permissible theories alleged in the indictment. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in its jury instruction on kidnapping.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 245 N.C. App. 532 - State v. Knight · 180 N.C. App. 286 - State v. Key

2. “Mr. Bancroft was certified as an expert in the fields of substance abuse addictions and cognizant behaviors. He testified that defendant could have been impaired at the time of the robbery, but that “the euphoric high would have probably been over.” Additionally, Bancroft testified that such an impairment “could have had a negative impact” upon the defendant’s ability to form a plan or course of conduct. In a voir dire examination of Bancroft, he stated that he could not testify about the defendant’s ability to think, make judgments, and distinguish right from wrong at the time these acts occurred. Bancroft’s testimony only referred to the effect cocaine could have had on the defendant, based on his experience of how cocaine affects people in general.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 143 N.C. App. 426 - State v. Golden

3. “The plain error standard requires a defendant to make a showing that absent the erroneous instruction, a jury would not have found him guilty of the offense charged. To rise to the level of plain error, the error in the instructions must be ‘so fundamental that it denied the defendant a fair trial and quite probably tilted the scales against him.’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 155 N.C. App. 294 - State v. Shipp