Vines v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

21 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “We think the foregoing argument by the State’s counsel justifies a reversal of this case. The defendant was not on trial for attempted rape. On the contrary, the State had put him on trial upon an indictment charging an assault to commit murder, the theory-being that his purpose was robbery. The State’s counsel clearly asked the jury to give consideration to the theory of attempted rape, and not robbery, referring to the defendant as “this human fiend . . . .” The court should have admonished counsel that he had no way to argue a theory that was wholly foreign to the indictment in order to secure a conviction, and that the language used was highly improper. While it is the duty of the State’s counsel to prosecute all offenders with the utmost vigor, he is never driven to the necessity of indulging in such intemperate language to influence the jury’s decision.”

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