Smith v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 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 1 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘No doubt, [Smith] had some IQ scores, in fact, all the IQ scores that I know in the school records that indicate school scores measured by IQ that would be indicative of mild mental retardation, if they were not spuriously lowered by things such as exposure to domestic violence, poverty, cultural deprivation, ethnicity, perhaps intoxication. He told me that he was accustomed to late elementary, early middle school years to take a half pint of gin to school and do that at recess. I can’t help to think that would have an adverse affect, if that was true, on his measured IQ’s, especially later on. Also, it was clear from talking to his brother, Jimmy, and directly observing one of his half brothers that he had been exposed to domestic violence of a serious nature as a young child, that he had a family history of depression, and had made suicide attempts in his life eating rat poison, attempting another time Jimmy told me—I had not heard of—he may have wanted to kill himself with exhaust fumes and also huffing gas.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 213 So. 3d 313 - Ex Parte Smith, 1080973 (Ala. 10-22-2010)

2. ““We are not persuaded that the execution of mentally retarded criminals will measurably advance the deterrent or the retributive purpose of the death penalty. Construing and applying the Eighth Amendment in the light of our ‘evolving standards of decency,’ we therefore conclude that such punishment is excessive and that the Constitution ‘places a substantive restriction on the State’s power to take the life’ of a mentally retarded offender. Ford [v. Wainwright], 477 U.S. [399], 405 [ (1986) ].””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 213 So. 3d 313 - Ex Parte Smith, 1080973 (Ala. 10-22-2010)

3. ““[Tjhere is abundant evidence that [the mentally retarded] often act on impulse rather than pursuant to a premeditated plan, and that in group settings they are followers rather than leaders. Their deficiencies do not warrant an exemption from criminal sanctions, but they do diminish their personal culpability.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 213 So. 3d 313 - Ex Parte Smith, 1080973 (Ala. 10-22-2010)