State v. Wheatley’s Empirical Analysis
1949
Citation profile
37 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 37 later decisions — most recently October 2001 · most notably Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Inc. v. Department of Employment & Training (1987), Shelton v. State (2001)
37 state decisions
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. Hess · United States v. Britton · Donnelley v. United States · State v. Lassotovitch · Maryland Unemployment Compensation Board v. Albrecht
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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"By the early common law it was essential to the validity of an indictment that it should conform strictly to established formality and charge the offense with technical accuracy of language. These rules developed when punishment for crime was exceedingly severe and it was desirable that technicalities be invoked to prevent the cruelty of strict enforcement of the law. Gradually, however, the courts came to recognize that much of the prolixity which characterized indictments could be safely disregarded without any infringement of the right of the accused to be informed as to the nature of the accusation against him. It has been the modern policy of the courts to disregard the extremely technical rules of the early common law, and to require only that an indictment shall allege fully the essential elements of the offense charged. We hold, however, that an indictment is demurrable which charges that the defendant, while holding a certain office, wilfully neglected the duties of an entirely different office." Id. at 50 .”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“such ... facts as would enable the accused to prepare his defense.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Canova
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.