State v. Allen’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 2 district · 121 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 126 later decisions — most recently September 2020 · most notably State v. Hinton (1993), State v. Mooney (1991)
3 federal appellate · 2 district · 121 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on In the Matter of Samuel Winship · Irvin v. Dowd · Wainwright v. Witt · Duncan v. State of Louisiana · State v. Golding
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 126 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Specifically, the trial court in Allen instructed: [T]he State ... would have to prove that the death of [the victim] was caused by [the defendant] or [his accomplice] in the course of, and in furtherance of the crimes of either burglary or robbery. The phrase in furtherance of such crime imposes the requirement of a logical nexus, that is a connection between the felony and the homicide. The connection between the underlying felony and homicide must be more than the mere coincidence of time and place. The nexus or connection must be one of logic or plan. This means that the felony murder statute excludes those deaths which are so far outside the plan of the felony and its execution as to be unrelated to that. In other words, a felony murder does not include any killing incidentally committed with the felony but only includes those felonies in the attempted execution of the felony of burglary and robbery. Although the homicide itself need not be in the common design, the act which results in death must be in furtherance of the unlawful purpose. In other words, [the victim's] death must have been caused in furtherance of committing the burglary or robbery and not merely incidental to it.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Pursuant to § 53a-54c, if a defendant charged with felony murder was not the sole participant in the underlying crime, that defendant may claim as an affirmative defense that he or she: (1) [d]id not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause or aid the commission thereof; and (2) was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any dangerous instrument; and (3) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon or instrument; and (4) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury. The defense is only effective if all four elements are met. The burden of proving these elements is on the defendant, who must prove their existence by a preponderance of the evidence.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“8. A murder for personal motive is an example of a death that is so far outside the ambit of the plan of the felony and its execution as to be unrelated to them. A murder for personal motive, then, is not a death in furtherance of the underlying felony....”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.