Stevenson v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

251 federal appellate · 10 district · 249 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 649 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““A judge may be entirely satisfied from the whole evidence in the case that the person doing the killing was actuated by malice; _that he was not in any such passion as to lower the grade of the crime from murder to manslaughter by reason of any absence of malice; and yet if there be any evidence fairly tending to bear upon the issue of manslaughter, it is the province of the jury to determine from all the evidence what the condition of mind was, and to say whether the crime was murder or manslaughter.” (Italics supplied.)”

   15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Crutchfield · United States v. Guyon

2. “[A]s long as there is some evidence upon the subject [of manslaughter] the proper weight to be given it is for the jury to determine_ The evidence might appear to the court to be simply overwhelming to show that the killing was in fact murder, and not manslaughter or an act performed in self-defense, and yet, so long as there was some evidence relevant to the act of manslaughter, the credibility and force of such evidence must be for the jury, and cannot be [a] matter of law for the decision of the court.”

   10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Wallace v. United States · Andersen v. United States

3. “"... The evidence as to manslaughter need not be uncontradicted or in any way conclusive upon the question; so long as there is some evidence upon the subject, the proper weight to be given it is for the jury to determine. If there were any evidence which tended to show such a state of facts as might bring the crime within the grade of manslaughter, it then became a proper question for the jury to say whether the evidence were true and whether it showed that the crime was manslaughter instead of murder... . The evidence might appear to the court to be simply overwhelming to show that the killing was in fact murder, and not manslaughter or an act performed in self defence, and yet, so long as there was some evidence relevant to the issue of manslaughter, the credibility and force of such evidence must be for the jury, and cannot be matter of law for the decision of the court. ( 162 U.S. 314 -315, 16 S.Ct. 839 .) * * * * * * "It is objected that while the evidence ... was proper to be submitted to the jury upon the issue of self defence, it was not of that character to even raise an issue as to the grade of the crime, if the theory of self defence were not sustained. We do not see the force of the objection. The fact that the evidence might raise an issue as to whether any crime at all was committed is not in the least inconsistent with a claim that it also raised an issue as to whether or not the plaintiff in error was guilty of manslaughter instead of murder. It might be argu”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Morgan v. State · Dukette v. Perrin