State v. Belfiglio’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. “However, in a case like the one at bar where the weapon used was of such a nature that defendant was able to drive it through the skull of an adult with one hand, at a single blow, and where the weapon was introduced at the trial, but no description of it is preserved in the evidence whereby this court may know its size, length, weight or whether sharp or blunt at the point, we will assume that the learned trial judge did not err in telling the jury as a matter of law that it was a deadly weapon.”

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