Smith v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

28 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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The admission and relevancy of photographs must necessarily rest largely in the discretion of the trial judge. Admissibility of photographs does not depend upon whether the objects they portray could be described in words, but rather on whether it would be useful to enable the witness better to describe and the jury better to understand, the testimony concerned. Where they are otherwise properly admitted, it is not a valid objection to the admissibility of photographs that they tend to prejudice the jury. Competent and material evidence should not be excluded merely because it may have a tendency to cause an influence beyond the strict limits for which it is admissible. Oliver v. State, 225 Ark. 809 , 286 S.W. 2d 17 ; Smith v. State, 216 Ark. 1 , 223 S.W. 2d 1011 (cert. den. 339 U.S. 916 ); Jones v. State, 213 Ark. 863 , 213 S.W. 2d 974 . Photographs are admissible for the purpose of describing and identifying the premises which were the scene of the crime, and may also be admitted to establish the corpus delicti of the crime charged, to disclose the environment and to corroborate testimony. Stewart v. State, 233 Ark. 458 , 345 S.W. 2d 472 (cert. den. 368 U.S. 935 ).””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. O'NEAL v. State

2. “Instruction No. 2, requested by appellant, entirely ignored the idea of malice and permitted the jury to reduce the crime to manslaughter even though they found that appellant brought on the difficulty maliciously and with the specific intent to kill. As this court said in Price v. State , 114 Ark. 398 , 170 S.W. 235 , 239 : 'The omission is an important one, for if defendant sought the difficulty with malice against the deceased and assaulted the latter, or used opprobrious epithets towards him for the purpose of bringing on the difficulty, he cannot claim the benefit of a sudden passion, aroused by an assault made by the deceased in consequence of the appellant's own conduct.' We find no error in the court's refusal to give the requested instructions.”

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

3. “You are instructed that if you find that the defendant was provoked to commit the assault on the deceased which he did commit by a passion consisting either of anger or fear to such an extent that he was unable to resist or to refrain from the committing of such assault, then he would be guilty of one of the degrees of manslaughter which has just been defined to you, and he would not be guilty of murder in the first degree.”

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