State v. Walton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “One of the issues in this case is whether the use of force by [Movant] against [Jones] was in self-defense. In this state the use of force including the use of deadly force to protect oneself from harm is lawful in certain situations. A person can lawfully use force to protect himself against an unlawful attack. However, an initial aggressor, that is, one who first attacks another, is not justified in using force to protect himself from the counter-attack that he provoked. [[Image here]] On the issue of self-defense in this case, you are instructed as follows: If [Movant] was not the initial aggressor in the encounter with [Jones] and]err [Harris], and if [Movant] reasonably believed that he was in imminent danger of death or serious physical injury from the acts of [Jones] and/or [Harris] and he reasonably believed that the use of deadly force was necessary to defend himself, then he acted in lawful self-defense.”

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