159 W. Va. 542 - State Ex Rel. Rasnake v. Narick’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently June 2010
12 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Simmons v. United States · Brady v. United States · Gregg v. Georgia · Gault · Furman v. Georgia
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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Under both the West Virginia rape and first degree murder statutes, W.Va.Code, § 62-3-15 [1965] and § 61-2-15 [1965] the jury determines guilt in the first instance and simultaneously determines whether life imprisonment or a lesser sentence will be imposed. While it is impossible to dictate standards to guide jury discretion in determining the question of whether mercy should be accorded a defendant, it does not follow that evidence with regard to the circumstances surrounding the perpetration of the crime, the motives of the accused, and the provocation which prompted the act are all irrelevant. While the civil rules provide that a civil litigant may plead inconsistent defenses it is unreasonable to believe that a simultaneous assertion of innocence and mitigation is workable in a criminal jury trial. It is impossible for a criminal defendant to maintain his innocence, introduce evidence in support of that proposition, and simultaneously introduce all of the evidence which would tend to mitigate the punishment. Since evidence of mitigation can only be taken as a confession of guilt, the criminal defendant will frequently be forced, as a matter of strategy, to curtail or eliminate his presentation of evidence on mitigating circumstances. Any such compelled choice undeniably burdens the criminal defendant’s right to be heard on the issues of punishment and sentence. On the other hand, a criminal defendant who chooses, from necessity, to introduce evidence on mitigation suffer”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“"The Court instructs the jury that in determining whether to recommend mercy you must consider all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the charge, including the degree of culpability of the defendant in regard to the commission of the crime, and whether any of the following mitigating circumstances were present: A, the defendant has no significant history of prior criminal activity; B, the murder was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance; C, the victim was a participant in the defendant’s homicidal conduct or consented to the homicidal act; D, the murder was committed under circumstances while [sic] the defendant believed to provide a moral justification or extenuation for his conduct; E, the defendant was an accomplice in a murder committed by another person and his participation in the homicidal act was relatively minor; F, the defendant acted under duress or under the domination of another person; G, at the time of the murder the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality, that is, wrongfulness, of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law [was] impaired as a result of mental disease or defect or intoxication; H, the youth of the defendant at the time of the crime. "In determining whether to grant mercy you should not consider sympathy as a factor.” (Emphasis added.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.