Cauthern v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 5 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “James Phillip Andrew testified [at both trials] that he was with the defendant, Ronnie Cauthern, and Brett Patterson shortly after the offenses. While watching television, they all saw an account of the Smiths’ murders in which a reward was offered for information. Cauthern told Andrew that he had worked for the Smiths in the past and that he broke into their home and made the wtíihan get into the closet, while he and Patterson strangled the man. Cauthern told Andrew that he raped the woman once and that he had stolen a wedding ring, a VCR, and some credit cards.... Joe Denning, Andrew’s roommate, also testified that Ronnie Cauthern admitted his role in the killings. Cauthern told Denning that he had cut the telephone lines to the house, had broken in through the back door, had shined flashlights in the victims’ faces in order to wake them, and had placed Rosemary Smith in a closet. He admitted to Den-ning that he had raped the woman and poured wine coolers over her, and then attempted to kill her. He said he tried to strangle the woman by tying a scarf around her neck, but did not have the strength to kill her, so he used the vase to create a tourniquet.... Cauthern’s former girlfriend, Jackie Pi-gue, testified that on Thursday night, January 8, 1987, Cauthern and Patterson were “solemn” and “quiet.” The next day Cauthern gave her a watch and a wedding ring. He told her that someone owed him money and he was holding the items as collateral. When she later saw a news report r”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Cauthern v. Colson

2. “The petitioner was born in Tennessee on September 5, 1967. His biological parents were Raymond Huhn, a German citizen, and Christine Tatteryn Huhn, a Canadian citizen. During Christine Huhn’s pregnancy, Raymond Huhn was arrested for burglary and imprisoned in California. Needing a place to live, Christine Huhn contacted her mother-in-law, Dagmar Huhn Cauthern, who lived in Tennessee and who invited Christine Huhn to stay with the Cauthern family. Dagmar Huhn's husband, Roy Cauthern, Sr., had served in the military during World War II. Evidently, while he was stationed in Germany, he met his future wife, a German citizen who ultimately became a casualty of the Allied bombings of that country. Little is known of Dagmar Huhn's life in Germany other than giving birth to one child, Raymond. Many years after the surrender of Germany and Japan, Dagmar Huhn immigrated to the United States and renewed her acquaintance with Roy Cauthern, Sr. He had been recently widowed in 1962, and he was a single parent to four children: Melinda, Mary Louise, Eveann, and Roy Cauthern, Jr. In February of 1963, Dagmar Huhn and Roy Cauthern, Sr. were married. Christine Huhn gave birth in 1967 to the petitioner while she was living with the Cautherns. When the petitioner was approximately six weeks old, Dagmar Cauth-ern prevailed upon Christine Huhn to return to California to divorce Raymond Huhn. When Christine Huhn left, Dagmar Cauthern then reported that Christine had abandoned her child, which allowe”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Cauthern v. Colson

3. “Even though the petitioner’s step-siblings undoubtedly endured abusive, isolated childhoods, it is by no means obvious from the proof that the petitioner’s childhood rivaled theirs. The evidence does not preponderate against the post-conviction court’s assessment that the petitioner led “a charmed life in comparison to his siblings, that he wasted his opportunity to become a productive citizen despite [his adopted father’s] attempts to foster his car-repair skills, and that he abandoned his wife and child.” To be sure, evidence about life in the Cauthern household would have been admissible during the penalty retrial; however, the test for prejudice in the post-conviction, ineffective assistance context is more exacting. [T]he quality of the proposed testimony rather than the quantity of witnesses determines whether prejudice has been established. In our opinion, the family-history evidence is, at best, marginal in terms of illuminating the case in such a way as to undermine confidence in the jury’s sentencing decision. At worst, the evidence is reminiscent of the adage in Strouth v. State, 755 S.W.2d 819 , 827 (Tenn.Crim. App.1986), that “while many people have unhappy childhoods, [few commit brutal murders].” Inasmuch as the petitioner’s step-siblings do not manifest obvious antisocial traits or violent tendencies, a jury reasonably could reject, or be insulted by, any suggestion that the petitioner’s criminal actions were attributable to a disadvantaged background.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Cauthern v. Colson