Otto v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[DEFENSE]: Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m having an awfully hard time with this, because the indictment charged that the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Adriane Otto was intoxicated by the introduction of alcohol into her system and they put on evidence about what they think was the cause of the intoxication and we put on evidence about that (sic) we think the cause of the intoxication was an involuntary — some kind of drug got in her system and that was the reason she was not able to drive with the use of her normal mental and physical faculties, and that’s the reason she was passed out in front of her ex-husband’s house in Jersey Village when the police found her. Now, if I read this clause, this extra charge that has been included in the jury charge, it sounds like if you find that the alcohol was in any way responsible for her intoxication, then she is guilty. That you have got to find that the drugs are virtually the sole reason for her intoxication before you can find her guilty. Now, if that’s the case, I don’t believe they have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that she was intoxicated by the introduction of alcohol into her system. And I’m not real sure exactly what this particular part of the charge says, but let me proceed with my original closing argument.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Otto v. State

2. “A person is criminally responsible if the result would not have occurred but for his conduct, operating either alone or concurrently with another cause, unless the concurrent cause was clearly sufficient to produce the result and the conduct of the actor clearly insufficient.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Otto v. State

3. “would not have occurred but for [her] conduct,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Otto v. State