Cox v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[a]n act which would otherwise be a crime is justified (and therefore not a crime) if the actor reasonably believes the act is necessary to prevent harm to himself or another. The applicable standard is objective rather than subjective: are the circumstances sufficient to arouse the fears of a reasonable man that he or another is in danger? The external circumstance that the victim had attacked the actor on prior occasions is relevant to show the reasonableness of the actor's fears, but personal characteristics of the actor which may make him act unreasonably are not. The defenses addressed by Uniform Superior Court Rule 31.4 — insanity, mental illness and mental incompetency — form a separate category of defenses based on diminished capacity rather than justification. In these situations an unjustified, criminal act has occurred, but the actor argues he should not be deemed fully culpable due to his mental disabilities. Evidence of mental capacity is clearly relevant in such cases.... Even though evidence of "battered woman syndrome" includes testimony from mental health experts, it is a defense of justification rather than diminished capacity because it is based on prior attacks upon the actor by the victim and is thus relevant to the reasonableness of her fears.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 280 Ga. App. 821 - Pickle v. State

2. “is necessary to defend himself... against such other's imminent use of unlawful force.”

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