State v. Phillips’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Moreover, the imposition of sentence is the responsibility of the trial judge rather than ours. He is in far better position to decide upon a proper punishment, State v. Brandon, 210 S. C. 495, 43 S. E. (2d) 449 ; State v. Scates, 212 S. C. 150, 46 S. E. (2d) 693 ; and his conclusion will be affirmed except in very rare instances, as pointed out in State v. Kimbrough, supra [212 S. C. 348, 46 S. E. (2d) 273 ]. We quote from the opinion in that case, 212 S. C. at page 357, 46 S. E. (2d) at page 277: ‘It is perhaps unnecessary to add that only under rare and unusual circumstances will this Court interfere with the discretion of the trial judge in the imposition of a sentence. The difficult duty and the weighty responsibility of determining the sentence to be imposed on a defendant is under most of our statutes properly left, within certain limitations, to the trial judge, who is in a much better position than this Court to fix the penalty to be imposed. As-well stated in Hawkins v. United States, 7 Cir., 14 F. (2d) 596, 598: “There is no judicial function which makes larger drafts upon the fairness, common sense, sanity, and good judgment of the judge than that of fixing penalties for criminal offenses, nor one which more vitally affects the stability of free institutions. Excessive penalties are tyrannical in the court, and abhorrent to the public; on the other hand, penalties unduly mild seriously embarrass law enforcement and encourage infractions of the criminal laws.” ’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. HALL