Hance v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
17 federal appellate · 116 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 140 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2023 · most notably State v. Ramseur (1987), Hance v. Georgia (1980)
17 federal appellate · 116 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 Jackson v. Virginia · Gregg v. Georgia · Beck v. State of Ohio · Witherspoon v. Illinois · Lockett v. Ohio
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 140 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The murder was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind or an aggravated battery to the victim.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Hall v. State · State v. Williams“[t]orture occurs when the victim is subjected to serious physical abuse before death.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Elmore · Burger v. Zant““Torture occurs when the victim is subjected to serious physical abuse before death (citation omitted). Serious sexual abuse may be found to constitute serious physical abuse. (Citation omitted.)_ “Evidence of psychological abuse by the defendant to the victim before death where it is shown to have resulted in severe mental anguish to the victim in anticipation of physical harm may amount to serious physical abuse (i.e. torture of the victim), and also will support a finding of depravity of mind of the defendant. “A defendant who mutilates or seriously disfigures the victim’s body after death ..., or who commits a sex act upon the victim’s body after death may be found to have a depraved mind and such acts would be sufficient to show depravity of mind of the defendant within the meaning of this statute .... “As heretofore stated, the evidence must be sufficient to satisfy the first major component of statutory aggravating circumstance seven (7) (‘outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman’), and at least one (or more) of the three parts of the second component (aggravated battery to the victim, or torture to the victim, or depravity of mind of the defendant).” 268 S.E.2d at 346 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Williams
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.