People v. Devine’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is the contention on the part of counsel for respondent that under this statute it is necessary that the information should contain an allegation that respondent, having a wife living, married another woman in this State, or had continued to cohabit with such second wife in this State, and, further, that such prosecution could be maintained only in the county where the second marriage occurred, or the county in which such cohabitation took place. The exact question is one of first impression in this State, and depends upon the construction to be given to the portion of the section above quoted, which provides: “ ‘If any person who has a former husband or wife living, shall marry another person, or shall continue to cohabit with such second husband or wife, in the State, he or she shall . . . be deemed guilty of the crime of polygamy.’ “It is fundamental that the courts of this State have jurisdiction to punish only such offenses as may be committed within its jurisdiction. It follows that the marriage referred to, if unlawful, and is the offense relied upon which is charged to have been committed in the State of Ohio, could not be the subject for a prosecution in Michigan; also that the offense of continuing to cohabit with such second wife must be charged to have been committed in this State in order to give our courts jurisdiction. The words of . this statute are plain and unambiguous and require no application of fundamental principles of criminal law in order to const”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 46 Wash. 2d 438 - State v. Lewis