State v. Fancy’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

23 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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he court’s action in this case allowed an eight person jury to actually deliberate on the fate of a defendant who was, at the time the jury was deliberating, faced with the possibility of a term of imprisonment for more than thirty years. This was a clear violation of the statute and our constitution. If we were to affirm the trial court’s order, our holding would have the practical effect of allowing a criminal trial to an eight person jury in violation of the Arizona Constitution and state statute anytime the jury returned a verdict with convictions which would authorize a sentence of less than thirty years, even though the defendant faced a possible sentence in excess of thirty years at the start of the jury’s deliberation.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Luque · State v. Maldonado

2. “[I]f we were to approve of the procedure utilized in the instant case, the state could always demand an eight person jury, knowing that it could later dismiss some charges if necessary. We do not believe the founders of our constitution nor the state legislature anticipated such a process. Additionally, such a procedure would encourage overzealous prosecutors to add additional charges to the criminal indictment, hoping to increase the likelihood of conviction on at least some of the charges. Although we are confident that most prosecutors would not be so influenced, we cannot permit the possibility to occur.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Henley · State v. Escobedo

3. “In the instant case, the trial court had the discretion, under State v. Cook, to allow the state to dismiss certain counts of the indictment or allegations of prior felony convictions so as to reduce the maximum authorized sentence to less than thirty years. However, it was necessary that any dismissal become effective prior to deliberation by the jury. Had the dismissals occurred before that point in the trial there would have been substantial compliance with the Arizona Constitution and state statute.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Kuck · State v. Kuck