Murphy v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 federal appellate · 20 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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Petitioner] claims the victim impact evidence admitted in his trial exceed (sic) what is constitutionally permissible, i.e., it “characterized the offense, the perpetrator, and recommended the punishment”, and thus deprived him of a fair trial and due process under the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court decisions in Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808 , 111 S.Ct. 2597 , 115 L.Ed.2d 720 (1991) and Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 , 107 S.Ct. 2529 , 96 L.Ed.2d 440 (1987). He claims Oklahoma’s governing statute, 22 O.S.Supp. 1998, § 984(1) and this Court’s interpretation thereof are unconstitutional. He also claims the statements were far more prejudicial than probative and that they contained hearsay and conjecture components. [Petitioner] specifically complains of the following from the written, but brief, victim impact statements that were read to jurors. First, the victim’s brother Rueban stated he could not understand why [Petitioner] would want to kill his brother and that [Petitioner] “should get the death penalty for taking an innocent life. I pray that he will not ever get out of jail and do bragging.” Second, the victim’s brother Frank stated, “I believe in the Bible. I believe an eye for any (sic) eye and that they should be put to death.” Third, the victim’s sister Irene’s statement commented on her anger at the “way (George) was murdered” and took the position that her brother “had a right to be here and alive today.” Irene also stated, “I hope you see th”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Derosa v. Workman · Bush v. Carpenter

2. “. [Petitioner] claims the trial court’s failure to define life without parole denied him due process of law and a fundamentally fair trial. To support this proposition, [Petitioner] points to a motion he filed prior to trial in which he requested the trial court to allow testimony or “evidence” regarding “the effects and conditions of a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.” Contrary to [Petitioner’s] claim, this motion was not a request for the trial court to provide the jury with instructions regarding the actual meaning of life without parole. Rather, it was a request to produce evidence to the jury during the second stage regarding distinctions between the sentencing options, relief available from the Department of Corrections, and the conditions and restrictions associated with a sentence of life without parole. Be that as it may, the motion was not denied, as [Petitioner] suggests. Rather, the trial judge ruled he would allow argument regarding this issue, but no evidence. (O.R. at 192). The trial judge specifically stated defense counsel could write the words “life without parole” for jurors during arguments, and underline the words “without parole.” He also allowed defense counsel to tell jurors that “life without parole means life without parole.” Defense counsel went even further than this, telling jurors that they had the option of “putting him in prison for the rest of his life ... don’t give him the possibility of parole.” This is not a case where a”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 497 F. Supp. 2d 1257 - Murphy v. Sirmons

3. “In August of 1999, [Petitioner] was living with Patsy Jacobs, his alleged “common-law” wife. Ms. Jacobs had previously lived for three years with George Jacobs, the victim in this case, and had a child by him. [Petitioner] and Patsy had an argument about Jacobs a couple of days before Jacobs was murdered. [Petitioner] told Patsy that he was going to get Jacobs and his family one by one. On August 28, 1999, George Jacobs and his cousin Mark Sumka spent most of the day drinking and driving around Okmulgee, Okfuskee, and McIntosh counties. They reportedly drank two bottles of whiskey and numerous beers that day. At 9:30 p.m., they were headed to a Henryetta bar in Jacobs’s Dodge Sedan. Jacobs was passed out in the back seat, and Sumka was driving. (Jacobs’s post mortem blood alcohol level would later be determined to be .23) Sumka and Jacobs passed [Petitioner] as he was driving in the opposite direction. Both cars stopped, and [Petitioner] backed up. [Petitioner] told Sumka to kill the car and get out. Meanwhile, two occupants of [Petitioner’s] car, Billy Long and Kevin King, exited the car. Alarmed, Sumka drove away. [Petitioner] and his companions pursued Sumka in [Petitioner’s] car. [Petitioner] was eventually able to force Sumka to stop. At that point, someone from [Petitioner’s] car arrived at Sum-ka’s car and began hitting Jacobs. Sumka got out of his car, but was stopped by [Petitioner] who said he was going to do to Jacobs what they had done to him. Sumka could hear the”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 497 F. Supp. 2d 1257 - Murphy v. Sirmons