21 So. 3d 1139 - State v. Levier’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The essence of his defense is that he was justified in responding to an attempted punch by shooting his opponent in the chest at close range. We recognize that |22Dejean had two friends with him. Thus, Defendant may have genuinely felt endangered; further, some level of fear was objectively reasonable. However, the level of force he used to defend himself was far beyond what was necessary under the circumstances. This analysis applies even if the jury believed the testimony of Defendant’s most favorable witness, Ms. Bryant, the Defendant’s mother. [A]s mentioned earlier, responding to an oncoming punch by shooting the other person in the chest is an excessive response. Thus, the jury’s determinations in the present case were not unreasonable. Therefore, the Defendant’s reliance on self-defense is mer-itless.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 33 So. 3d 1046 - State v. Lewis