196 N.C. App. 330 - State v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In order for you to find the Defendant guilty of second degree murder, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant intentionally and with malice wounded Tre’Shaun Lamont Williams with a deadly weapon thereby proximately causing his death. If the State proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant intentionally inflicted a wound upon Tre’Shaun Lamont Williams with a deadly weapon that proximately caused his death, you may infer, first, that the killing was unlawful and, second, that it was done with malice, but you are not compelled to do so. You may also infer that the killing was unlawful and that it was done with malice, if you find from the evidence that the victim’s death resulted from an attack by hand alone without the use of other weapons when the attack was made by a strong or mature person upon a weaker or defenseless person, but, again, you are not compelled to do so. You may consider the inferences along with all other facts and circumstances in determining whether the killing was unlawful and whether it was done with malice. If the killing was unlawful and was done with malice, the Defendant would be guilty of second degree murder. And, again, a deadly weapon is a weapon which is likely to cause death or serious injury. In determining whether the hands of the Defendant were used as a deadly weapon, you should consider their nature, the manner in which they were used and the size and strength of the Defendant as compared to Tre’Shaun Lam”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 216 N.C. App. 15 - State v. Trogdon