State v. Couture’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 351 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 353 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “'murderous fiends,' 'rats,' 'utterly merciless killers,' and 'inhumane, unfeeling and reprehensible creatures'”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 168 Conn. App. 321 - State v. Elias V. · 1994 Conn. Super. Ct. 10295 - Gables v. McCarthy, No. Cv91 0058355 (Oct. 31, 1994)

2. “It is no part of a [prosecutor's] duty, and it is not his right, to stigmatize a defendant. He has a right to argue that the evidence proves the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment, but for the [prosecutor] himself to characterize the defendant as a cold-blooded killer is something quite different. No [defendant] on trial for murder can be officially characterized as a murderer or as a cold-blooded killer, until he is adjudged guilty of murder or pleads guilty to that charge.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Campbell

3. “A fundamental purpose of the criminal law is to protect individual citizens from the criminal conduct of another. People are neither fungible nor amorphous. Where crimes against persons are involved, a separate interest of society has been invaded for each violation. Therefore, when two or more persons are the victims of a single episode there are as many offenses as there are victims, [citations omitted].”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Daniels v. Bronson