State v. McBroom’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““K.S.A. 21-3107(3) establishes the trial court’s duty concerning instructions for lesser crimes. The trial court has a duty to instruct on all lesser offenses established by substantial evidence, however weak, unsatisfactory, or inconclusive the evidence may appear to the court. To refuse to so instruct the jury invades the jury’s province in the trial of a case. The question is not whether, in the mind of the court, the evidence as a whole excludes the idea that the defendant is guilty of a lesser degree of the offense charged, but whether there is any substantial evidence tending to prove a lesser degree of the offense. If there is, then the question should be submitted to the jury. The unsupported testimony of the defendant alone, if tending to establish such lesser degree, is sufficient to require the court to so instruct. The duty to instruct exists even though the instructions have not been requested.” Syl. ¶ 1. “Where there is no substantial evidence applicable to the lesser degrees of the offense charged, and all of the evidence taken together shows that the offense, if committed, was clearly of the higher degree, instructions relating to the lesser degrees of the offense are not necessary. The trial judge is under no duty to instruct on a lesser included offense if the evidence makes proof of the lesser offense an impossibility.” Syl. ¶ 3.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Stone