175 Ill. App. 3d 521 - People v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"The courts reasoned, generally, that the essence of the 'mere presence’ instruction was already incorporated in or encompassed by those instructions — which advise the jury that a defendant must be found innocent unless the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt that before or during the commission of the defined offense he /she, with the intent to promote or facilitate the commission of that offense, knowingly solicited, aided, abetted, agreed or attempted to aid the other person in the planning or commission of it — and that the jurors were, therefore, fully and accurately apprised of the law constituting the theory of defense, i.e., that mere presence at the scene of a crime during its commission is insufficient to sustain a conviction.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 217 Ill. App. 3d 698 - People v. Thomas · 257 Ill. App. 3d 670 - People v. Wilson

2. ““It is fundamental that an accused, like the State, is entitled to the submission of appropriate jury instructions on the law applicable to the theory of defense if there was evidence introduced at trial in support of that theory [citations], but it is the trial court which determines, after consideration of the facts and the governing law, whether the jury should be instructed on a particular subject and, then, whether the Illinois Pattern Instructions in Criminal Cases (IPI-Criminal) contains an instruction which accurately states the law on that subject. (107 Ill. 2d R. 451(a).) If there is an appropriate IPI instruction, it must be used. (107 Ill. 2d R. 451(a).) However, the decision to give or refuse a non-IPI instruction is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial court. [Citations.] An abuse of discretion in the refusal of such instruction occurs only where there is no IPI instruction applicable to the subject on which the jury should have been instructed (107 Ill. 2d R. 451(a); People v. Stamps (1982), 108 Ill. App. 3d 280 , 438 N.E.2d 1282 ), and the jury was, therefore, left to deliberate without proper instructions [citation]. Conversely, refusal to give a non-IPI instruction does not constitute an abuse of discretion if there is an applicable IPI instruction and/or the essence of the refused instruction is covered by other given instructions.” (Emphasis in original.) People v. Thomas (1988), 175 Ill. App. 3d 521, 528 , 529 N.E.2d 1071, 1075 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 213 Ill. App. 3d 928 - People v. Govin