State v. Sparks’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 40 later decisions — most recently April 1998 · most notably State v. Grissom (1992), State v. Childers (1977)
40 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 Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Lawrence Metze v. New York · State v. Wilkins · State v. Campbell · State v. Ritson
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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““In all of his points concerning sufficiency of the evidence, defendant relies upon State v. Doyle, 201 Kan. 469 , 441 P. 2d 846 . Based on the decision in Doyle defendant argues the corpus delicti has not been proved since the evidence is susceptible to a construction which will prove innocence as well as guilt. Defendant’s interpretation of Doyle is correct, but the case is clearly distinguishable from that at bar. In Doyle the state was required to exclude, by evidence, death by accident or suicide since the circumstances there pointed no more strongly to criminal homicide than to death by accident or suicide. In Doyle the dead man was found slumped over the steering wheel of his own automobile with a bullet wound in his right temple. A pistol lay beside his right hand on the front seat of the automobile. There was no evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, to indicate the accused was ever at the scene of the crime. In the instant case direct evidence placed defendant in physical contact with LaDonna, and established the cause of death as multiple bruises or traumas to the head. Obviously, LaDonna’s injuries did not result from self-inflicted blows or attempted suicide.” (pp. 208, 209.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Johnson““. . . The court is not required to define every word or phrase in an instruction unless from a fair reading of the instructions as a whole there is likelihood the jury will be misled or left to speculate without further explanation. . . .” (p. 210.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Lee
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.