249 N.C. App. 383 - State v. Clevinger’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Robbery with a dangerous weapon consists of the following elements: (1) the unlawful taking or an attempt to take personal property from the person or in the presence of another (2) by use or threatened use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon (3) whereby the life of a person is endangered or threatened. Common law robbery is a lesser-included offense of robbery with a dangerous weapon. The difference between the two offenses is that robbery with a dangerous weapon is accomplished by the use or threatened use of a dangerous weapon whereby the life of a person is endangered or threatened. A deadly weapon is generally defined as any article, instrument or substance which is likely to produce death or great bodily harm. Relevant here, the evidence in each case determines whether a certain kind of knife is properly characterized as a lethal device as a matter of law or whether its nature and manner of use merely raises a factual issue about its potential for producing death. The dangerous or deadly character of a weapon with which the accused was armed in committing a robbery may be established by circumstantial evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 266 N.C. App. 580 - State v. Redmond

2. “the proposition that where the trial court submits to the jury the question of whether a dangerous weapon was used to commit a robbery, it must also submit an instruction for common law robbery. That may be the rule when there is evidence of common law robbery, but as our Supreme Court has held repeatedly, an instruction for the lesser-included offense is not required when there is no evidence to support it: The necessity for instructing the jury as to an included crime of lesser degree than that charged arises when and only when there is evidence from which the jury could find that such included crime of lesser degree was committed. The presence of such evidence is the determinative factor. Hence, there is no such necessity if the State's evidence tends to show a completed robbery and there is no conflicting evidence relating to elements of the crime charged. Mere contention that the jury might accept the State's evidence in part and might reject it in part will not suffice.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 266 N.C. App. 580 - State v. Redmond

3. “during the robbery, the man identified as defendant grabbed McDade's fifteen-year-old daughter, pulled her head back, and held the knife against her neck as he threatened to slit her throat. The State's evidence was clear and positive as to the dangerous weapon element, and there was no evidence from which a rational juror could find that the knife, based on its nature and the manner in which it was used, was anything other than a dangerous weapon.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 266 N.C. App. 580 - State v. Redmond