State v. Leland’s Empirical Analysis
1951
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 38 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 50 later decisions (6 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2019 · most notably Culombe v. Connecticut (1961), Leland v. Oregon (1952)
2 federal appellate · 38 state decisions — followed in 12 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Britton · People Ex Rel. Lemon v. Supreme Court · State v. Dorsey · Raytheon Production Corp. v. Commissioner · People v. . Becker
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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"In fixing the penalty in a first degree murder case, the jury's choice is between capital punishment and a sentence of life imprisonment. The possibility of pardon or parole, purely speculative, should not enter into the jury's deliberations, and was irrelevant on the voir dire examination. We, therefore, agree * * * that it was improper for the court to make the statement that it did in this regard, and also improper for the assistant district attorney afterwards to call attention to the court's statement. We are not convinced, however, that the incident resulted in any prejudice to the defendant. * * * It should be remembered that the statements complained of were made while the jury was being selected and some eleven days before the case was finally submitted. In the instructions the court told the jury that if it brought in a verdict of murder in the first degree, with a recommendation of life imprisonment, `this recommendation is mandatory and imposes compulsory action on the court. In such event the penalty is imprisonment for life, and you shall assume life imprisonment means imprisonment for life.' This was the last word that the jury heard upon the question from the court. * * *"”
3 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Smith · State v. Simonsen““As long as the * * * plea of not guilty stood, the state had the right to prove its case up to the hilt and to choose its own way of doing so [citing cases], subject only to the rules of evidence and the standard of fair play * * * ””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“"then the imprisonment would be for life, and that is the law. As a practical matter, how long he would serve I have no idea, nor do you. That would be up to the Board of Probation and Parole * * *."”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Simonsen
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.