Torres v. States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 federal appellate · 27 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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “During the early morning hours [2:40 a.m.] of July 12,1993, Francisco Morales and his wife, Maria Yanez, were shot and killed in the bedroom of their Oklahoma City home. The sound of gunfire woke Yanez’s daughter Christina, who was 14 years old in the summer of 1993. Christina called 911 and told the operator that she believed her step-father, Morales, may have been firing the gun. After hanging up the telephone, she looked out her bedroom door. A light was on in the living room; Christina saw two men. One man was wearing a white t-shirt and the other man was wearing a black t-shirt. Christina stated the man in the black t-shirt had something in his hand, but she did not know what it was. Christina initially denied knowing the two men, but eventually identified Ochoa as the man in the black t-shirt and Torres as the man in the white t-shirt. The shooting also awakened Christina’s step-brother, Francisco, who was eleven years old in the summer of 1993. Francisco saw the man in the black t-shirt shoot his father. He could not identify the gunman. The police quickly responded to Christina’s 911 call. While en route to the Yanez/Morales home, Officer Coats arrested Torres and Ochoa, who were walking together a short distance from the homicide. The men were sweating and nervous, and Coats claimed he observed blood on the clothing of the men. Subsequent tests revealed the presence of blood on Torres’ clothes. Shortly before the shootings, Torres and Ochoa parked a car at a friend’s”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Torres v. Mullin

2. “Torres and Ochoa parked a car a few blocks from the Yanez/Morales home shortly before the murders. One witness identified Ochoa as one of the men in the car. She could not identify the other man but stated that that other man took a gun from the trunk of the car and put the gun in his waist band. The gun was not a Tech-9, which was the gun used in the killings. Christina Yanez testified that after hearing a number of gunshots and after she called 911, she looked out into the living room and saw Torres and Ochoa standing together. Christina testified that Ochoa was holding something in his hand, but she could not identify what it was. Torres and Ochoa were talking and moving back and forth. Both men were arrested together shortly after the killings and only a few blocks away from the killings. Torres had blood on his clothing which was consistent with his blood, Ochoa’s blood and victim Morales’ blood. A footprint consistent with Torres’ footprint was found a short distance from the Yanez/Morales home. The front door of the Yanez/Morales house looked like it had been kicked in.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Torres v. Mullin

3. “Like Torres, the appellant in Johnson complained that the trial court erred in using the Oklahoma Uniform Instructions on aiding and abetting in a first degree malice murder case. Like Torres, Johnson argued the instructions allowed the jury to replace a general intent with a specific intent to kill thus lessening or changing the State’s burden of proof. The Johnson Court rejected this argument finding that these instructions in conjunction with the instructions on first degree murder properly set out Oklahoma law and channeled the jury’s discretion.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Torres v. Mullin