Levell v. Simpson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 federal appellate · 62 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 70 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “* * * merely prescribes a greater penalty for one who is convicted a second time of the commission of a felony and a still greater penalty for one who is convicted of a felony for the third time.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hill v. Hudspeth · State v. Albano

2. “The circumspection which our procedure exerts to keep the fact of any former convictions for felonies away from the jury is to protect the accused from the possibility that in his pending trial the jury might conceive a prejudice against him as a habitual criminal. But where a second offense is a separate and distinct crime it must necessarily be so charged in the information, and the proof to support the charge in all its details would have to be submitted to the jury. We have one such crime in this state—the persistent violation of the prohibitory law. A first offense against the prohibitory law (with exceptions not here pertinent) is a misdemeanor punishable by a moderate fine and jail sentence. But a subsequent infraction of the prohibitory law is quite a different and a more serious crime. It is a distinct felony. In such a case, all the formalities of a felonious charge should be pleaded in the information. Of necessity, too, every material allegation in such an information would have to be proved to the satisfaction of a jury. [Citations omitted.]”

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

3. ““Every person convicted a second time of felony, the punishment of which is confinement in the penitentiaiy, shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than double the time of the first conviction; and if convicted a third time of felony, he shall be confined in the penitentiary during his life. Judgment in such cases shall not be given for the increased penalty, unless the court shall find, from the record and other competent evidence, the fact of former convictions for felony committed by the prisoner, in or out of this state.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Luppy v. Hudspeth