16 Wash. App. 119 - State v. Gibson’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently September 2023 · most notably 94 Wash. 2d 387 - State v. Fain (1980), 21 Wash. App. 855 - State v. Forrester (1978)
30 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 · Babich v. United States · James Graham v. State of West Virginia · Hart v. Coiner · State v. Le Pitre
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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The sentence is mandatory, but we find no authority which precludes a subsequent suspension of the execution of the sentence by the trial judge. . . . Nor is there any language in the statute from which to conclude that the discretionary power to suspend is lost once a defendant has been adjudged a habitual criminal. The habitual criminal statute does not contain such language. RCW 9.92.090. Finally, the statute which prescribes the penalty for taking and riding in a motor vehicle contains no language restricting the trial judge's discretionary power. RCW 9.92.010. Literal and strict interpretation must be given criminal statutes. State v. Bell, 83 Wn.2d 383 , 518 P.2d 696 (1974). . . . Had the legislature intended to except the discretionary power to suspend in cases where a defendant had been adjudged a habitual criminal, it could have done so as it did in RCW 9.41.025, relating to penalties to be imposed for resisting arrest while armed with a firearm or for the commission of an inherently dangerous crime while armed with a firearm.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Whenever any person shall be convicted of any crime except murder, burglary in the first degree, arson in the first degree, robbery, carnal knowledge of a female child under the age of ten years, or rape, the court may in its discretion, at the time of imposing sentence upon such person, direct that such sentence be stayed and suspended until otherwise ordered by such court. . .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“in view of contemporary standards of elemental decency, the punishment is of such disproportionate character to the offense as to shock the general conscience and violate principles of fundamental fairness.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.