22 Ala. App. 160 - Johnson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““This statute was never intended to make the criminal law an instrument for the enforcement of a civil liability in favor of the mother nor indeed could it do so under the Constitution. Its purpose is to protect the public. When a man has children who by his own-contract or by order of the court have been placed in. the custody of a third person who agrees to care for and support them, and so far as he knows such children are being so cared for, it cannot be said, that he has willfully neglected them. If A sends his ' minor children to B, under an agreement, either expressed or implied, that B will support them, and B does so, A cannot be convicted on a charge of desertion or willful neglect, although a civil obligation may run to B as against A. So, in this case, the children are not being neglected, nor are they in want. Whatever liability there is runs to the mother as against defendant on his common-law duty to support his children, but under this evidence he cannot be convicted of willful neglect.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 43 Ala. App. 171 - Rouse v. State

2. “"The duty sought to be enforced in this prosecution is not the obligation running to the mother, but is a duty running to the state that defendant support his own children lest they become a charge upon the public. . . ." [Emphasis added].”

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