157 So. 3d 1230 - State v. Harris’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 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 1 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Considering the victim’s cause and manner of death, we find that there was sufficient evidence that whoever inflicted the injuries upon Aleecia Miller specifically intended to kill the victim or to inflict great bodily harm, or without such intent, killed her while committing cruelty to a juvenile. The evidence was sufficient to prove that whoever inflicted the injuries intentionally mistreated the victim, thus committing cruelty to a juvenile. Where the cause of death was non-accidental blunt force trauma, and the bruises were inflicted within eighteen hours of the discovery of the victim, there was sufficient evidence to prove that the victim died during the commission of cruelty to a juvenile. The only issue remaining is the identity of the person who inflicted the injuries. This court has stated the following regarding circumstantial evidence: • [W]hen the conviction is based upon circumstantial evidence, La.R.S. 15:438 provides that such evidence must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. State v. Camp, 446 So.2d . 1207 (La.1984); State v. Wright, 445 So.2d 1198 (La.1984). However, La.R.S. 15:438 does not establish ,a stricter standard of review on appeal than the rational juror’s reasonable doubt standard.-,... On appeal, the issue is whether a rational trier of fact, when viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, could find that all reasonable hypotheses of innocence were excluded. State v. Dotson, 04-1414, p. 2 (La.App. 3 Cir. 3/2/”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 179 So. 3d 753 - State v. Jackson

2. “The defendant asserts that the State’s case was based solely on circumstantial evidence since no eyewitnesses testified at trial as to seeing him kill the victim. He argues that there was insufficient evidence to prove he specifically intended to kill the victim, and there was insufficient evidence to prove that he killed the victim while committing the felony of cruelty to a juvenile. The defendant further asserts that there was a sufficiently reasonable hypothesis of in-nocenee, that is, “Porsha' Miller struck the'fatal blow that caused the death of A.J.M. and was responsible for the repeated abuse of A.J.M.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 179 So. 3d 753 - State v. Jackson