2 Md. App. 120 - Leyva v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ 'Premeditated’ means that the killing must have been meditated, planned in the mind, beforehand; that the design to kill must have preceded the killing by an appreciable length of time, time enough to deliberate; and in order to justify a conviction of first de gree murder, the trier of facts must find the actual intent (wilfulness), the fully formed purpose to kill (deliberation), with enough time for deliberation and premeditation to convince the trier of facts that this purpose is not the immediate offspring of rashness and impetuous temper (lack of deliberation and premeditation), but that the mind has become fully conscious of its own design. Although the design to kill must precede the killing by some appreciable length of time, that time need not be long. If the killing be not the instant effect of impulse, if there be hesitation or doubt to overcome, a choice made as the result of thought, however short the struggle between the intention and the act, it is sufficient to characterize the crime as deliberate and premeditated murder. Cummings v. State, 223 Md. 606 , 165 A. 2d 886 ; Faulcon v. State, 211 Md. 249 , 126 A. 2d 858 ; Dunn v. State, 226 Md. 463 , 174 A. 2d 185 ; Chisley v. State, 202 Md. 87, 106 , 95 A. 2d 577 . And the question of premeditation must be determined by the facts of each particular case. Cuturnings v. State; Chisley v. State, both supra.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 3 Md. App. 485 - Brooks v. State

2. ““Hochheimer . . . defines ‘wilful’ as follows: ‘there must be a specific purpose and design to kill; ’ ‘deliberate’ is defined: ‘there must be full and conscious knowledge of the purpose to do so; ’ and, ‘premeditated’ as: ‘the design must have preceded the killing by an appreciable length of time, time enough to be deliberate. In order to justify a conviction of murder in the first degree, as thus defined, the jury must find the actual intent, the fully formed purpose to kill, with so much time for deliberation and premeditation as to convince them, that this purpose is not the immediate offspring of rashness and impetuous temper and that the mind has become fully conscious of its own design. ’ ” (Emphasis supplied)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 28 Md. App. 640 - Evans v. State