State v. Loudermill’s Empirical Analysis
1965
Citation profile
75 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 75 later decisions — most recently January 2025 · most notably State v. Adams (1980), State v. Sage (1987)
75 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on 109 Ohio St. 281 - State v. Champion · 119 Ohio St. 250 - Freeman v. State
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 75 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ * * * if evidence tending to prove a lesser included offense is present and a jury is inhibited by the charge from finding defendant guilty thereof, the collective conscience of that body may too easily be disposed to fabricate the elements of the crime charged in the indictment and to find defendant guilty as charged rather than risk, by a verdict of acquittal, turning the malefactor loose upon a society grievously harmed by his act. This is speculation at its worst and a natural and probable consequence of a failure to charge on a lesser included offense when evidence of its commission is present.” State v. Loudermill (1965), 2 Ohio St.2d 79, 81 , 31 O.O.2d 60, 61 , 206 N.E.2d 198, 200 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““# * * The concept of lesser included offenses is vitalized by statute (Section 2945.74, Revised Code) not by common law. “The statutory commandments are clear. The evidence, as Well as the law, governs the charge of the court in a criminal case (Section 2945.11, Revised Code), and the charge must he consistent with the evidence. It is the duty of the court to give, as well as that of the jury to consider, a charge on the lesser included offenses which are shown by the evidence to have been committed(Emphasis added.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““We repeat with approval the last paragraph of the unanimous opinion of the Court of Appeals, by Judge Smith: <«<*** The jury should not be denied its right to pass upon the credibility and weight of the evidence by failing to charge a lesser included offense where there is evidence tending to support a charge of a lesser included offense.’ ” (Emphasis added.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.