193 So. 2d 47 - Cole v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “* * * that testimony concerning a deceased's reputation for violence is admissible, even if the defendant does not know of that reputation, where that testimony explains, or will give meaning, significance, or point to the conduct of the deceased at the time of the killing, or will tend to do so. The appellant bases this contention upon the rule recognized by the Supreme Court of Florida in Garner v. State, 28 Fla. 113 , 9 So. 835 (1891).”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Freeman v. State · 341 So. 2d 815 - Marcum v. State

2. ““Evidence of the violent and dangerous character of the deceased is admissible to show, or as tending to show, that a defendant has acted in self-defense, or, in other words, under such circumstances as would have naturally caused a man of ordinary reason to believe that he was at the time of the killing in imminent danger of losing his life or suffering great bodily harm at the hands of the deceased; but it is not admissible for this purpose, except where it explains, or will give meaning, significance, or point to the conduct of the deceased at the time of the killing, or will tend to do so; and such conduct of the deceased, at the time of the killing, which it is proposed thus to explain, must be shown before the auxiliary evidence of such character can be introduced. Horbach v. State, 43 Tex. 242 ; Hudson v. State, 6 Tex.App. 565 , 573; Franklin v. State, 29 Ala. 14 ; Eiland v. State, 52 Ala. 322 ; Roberts v. State, 68 Ala. 156 .” (Emphasis supplied.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 215 So. 2d 71 - Rafuse v. State

3. “* * * Men who are assailed act in defending themselves with promptness and force in proportion to the violent and dangerous character of the assailant. The law, in deciding whether or not a person has in slaying another acted under a reasonable belief that he was in imminent danger of life or great bodily harm, considers all the circumstances, and, among others, the dangerous character of the deceased, when it is by the circumstances of the killing rendered admissible in evidence, or becomes a part of the res gestae, as it is and does where it illustrates the conduct of the deceased. The accused is entitled to have the jury see all the circumstances as they existed, and to judge him accordingly. This they could not do if, in such cases, the dangerous character of the deceased was kept from them. ( 193 So.2d at 49 )”

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