Stanley v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 37 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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The petitioner’s defense at the trial was insanity. In view of the overwhelming evidence against the petitioner it is clear that insanity was the only defense reasonably available to the petitioner. A careful examination of the petitioner’s written statement now under attack shows that it complements the testimony of defense witness, Dr. Donald Chambers, the psychiatrist who testified to the petitioner’s insanity. In the written statement the petitioner states that since his grandmother died he had missed her so much and would get a feeling of ‘kill, kill, kill’ in his head. At the end of the petitioner’s statement he talks about what was going through his mind at the time his mother arrived at home and after he heard Detective Davis say that his stepfather was dead. He said, “I don’t know why I did it. There was something in me that just says ‘kill, kill, kill’ ”. On direct examination Dr. Donald Chambers testified that the death of petitioner’s grandmother created severe depression in the petitioner. The petitioner’s statement is consistent with that diagnosis. Dr. Chambers went on to testify that the death of petitioner’s grandmother produced homicidal preoccupation and ruminative thinking which occurred several weeks prior to the shooting of Mr. Reynolds. Dr. Chambers described ruminative thinking as a few thoughts which just continually circle in the mind; one single idea, one single effect attached to the idea. The portion of the petitioner’s statement where he said he ”

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