State v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Appellant’s next point asserts that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury sua sponte on the lesser included offense of stealing less than one hundred fifty dollars. When a defendant requests a lesser included offense instruction, the trial court errs in not giving the instruction if there is a basis for both an acquittal of the higher offense and a conviction of the lesser included offense. Here, appellant did not request the instruction for misdemeanor stealing. If a defendant does not specifically request a lesser included offense instruction, the defendant may not complain about the trial court’s failure to give the instruction. Even under plain error review appellant cannot prevail. For instructional error to rise to the level of plain error, the trial court must have so misdirected or failed to instruct the jury as to cause manifest injustice or miscarriage of justice. Defendant bears the burden of establishing manifest injustice. Part of the rationale for the rule that requires a defendant to request a lesser included instruction before the defendant can complain that the instruction was not given is related to trial strategy. It is often a matter of strategy as to whether or not to request a lesser included offense instruction. A tactical decision not to request the lesser included offense instruction is based upon the belief that the jury may convict of the lesser offense if it is submitted, but the jury may not convict the defendant of any crime if th”

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

2. “[including the allegation of error in his motion for new trial does not suggest that failing to request the lesser-included offense instruction was not trial strategy”; rather, it suggests only”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State of Missouri v. Gabriel L. Leonard