State v. Stevens’s Empirical Analysis
2002
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently February 2022
2 federal appellate · 22 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 People v. Teicher · State v. Sheppard · State v. Graves · State v. Detonancour · State v. Berger
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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Here, considering the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, we conclude that no rational trier of fact could have found that [these two victims] were “physically helpless” under §§ 45-5-501(l)(b)(ii) and 45-2- 101, MCA. While [they] were in a relaxed or dream state during their massages, there is simply no credible evidence in the record demonstrating that they were unconscious or otherwise physically unable to communicate unwillingness to act. In sum, the State offered no evidence at Stevens’ trial that [these two victims] were incapable of consent due to ‘force” or being “physically helpless.” Accordingly, without such evidence, a rational trier of fact could not have found that the State proved the essential element “without consent” beyond a reasonable doubt. We therefore reverse that portion of the District Court’s judgment determining that Stevens was guilty of the offense of sexual intercourse without consent with respect to [these two victims].”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Shields“(1) As used in 45-5-503, the term “without consent” means: (a) the victim is compelled to submit by force against the victim or another; or (b) the victim is incapable of consent because the victim is: (i) mentally defective or incapacitated; (ii) physically helpless; (iii) overcome by deception, coercion, or surprise; (2) As used in subsection (1), the term “force” means: (a) the infliction, attempted infliction, or threatened infliction of bodily injury or the commission of a forcible felony by the offender; or (b) the threat of substantial retaliatory action that causes the victim to reasonably believe that the offender has the ability to execute the threat.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Shields“a sleeping victim of sexual intercourse without consent is “physically helpless” for purposes of §§ 45-2-101 and 45-5-501(l)(b)(ii), MCA. The statutory definition of “physically helpless”is broadly worded to encompass a person who is sleeping since such a person is temporarily unconscious or is otherwise physically unable to communicate unwillingness to act. In other words, a sleeping victim cannot consent to sexual intercourse. Whether a victim is indeed sleeping, and thus “physically helpless,” is a fact question for the jury.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Shields
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.