Trujillo v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Appellant admitted getting the pistol, out of his pocket after Mr. Scurlock hit him in the head. The only evidence presented was that the gun went off accidentally during the scuffle. Just as there was no evidence concerning Appellant’s specific intent, and the jury so found by acquitting Appellant of murder, there is no evidence of his perception of the risk of the gun discharging. The evidence before the jury concerning that risk is subject to more than one inference. There is no evidence of his mental state. An inference could be assumed that Appellant was aware of the risks in producing the pistol after being hit but consciously disregarded same, which would authorized [sic] a conviction for manslaughter. That same lack of evidence, however, is subject to another inference, that he was unaware of the risk of the accidental discharge. Such an inference would authorize the jury to convict Appellant of the lesser included offense of criminally negligent homicide.”

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

2. “refers only to one’s own physical body movements. If those physical movements are the nonvolitional result of someone else’s act, are set in motion by some independent non-human force, are caused by a physical reflex or convulsion, or are the product of unconsciousness, hypnosis or other nonvolitional impetus, that movement is not voluntary.”

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