Wilkinson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 19 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"The courts generally hold that the right to resist an unlawful arrest is a phase of the right of self-defense; that as in other cases of self-defense the person sought to be arrested is justified in taking life only when he has reasonable ground to apprehend that he is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm; that he is not justified in killing merely for the purpose of resisting an unlawful arrest or other restraint upon his liberty, where the only injury which could be reasonably apprehended is an unlawful detention for a short time or other injury short of death or great bodily harm; that the officer attempting to make an unlawful arrest is simply the aggressor in the difficulty, and stands in the shoes of any other aggressor in a like difficulty... . We prefer to align ourselves with the majority rule. We hold, therefore, that an officer attempting to make an unlawful arrest is not cut off from the right of self-defense; that he is only the aggressor in the difficulty and is in no worse attitude than any other aggressor under like facts and circumstances." 143 Miss. at 335-336 , 108 So. at 712-713 .”

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