McGee v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 6 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. “because reasonableness is a factual question closely allied with considerations involving the credibility of witnesses and the weight to be given to their testimony, trial courts must avoid basing decisions as to the necessity of self-defense instructions on an evaluation of the reasonableness of defendants' conduct.... It is not the province of the judge to weigh the evidence and decide if a defendant's subjective belief was reasonable or unreasonable.[ [32] ]”

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

2. “1) [t]he act charged must have been done to prevent a significant evil; 2) there must have been no adequate alternative; 3) the harm caused must not have been disproportionate to the harm avoided.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Greenwood v. State

3. “the basic principle of statutory construction favoring a specific provision of a statute over a general one when the two conflict.”

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