Howard v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

49 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 51 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “At the time of the shooting, Ms. Howard occupied the driver’s seat of her parked automobile, while Gene Grim, the victim’s boyfriend, occupied the passenger’s side. The victim stood outside on the driver’s side. Ms. Howard testified that the victim, who was large and jealous, approached the vehicle, reached through the partially open driver’s side door window and began to pull her hair, pinning her against the window. Ms. Howard claimed that while still pinned she retrieved her pistol and fired a warning shot. When the victim continued pulling Ms. Howard’s hair, she fired the second and fatal shot. The only other surviving eyewitness, Mr. Grim, testified that he neither heard the victim threaten Ms. Howard, nor saw the victim pull Ms. Howard’s hair. He went on to state that he did not see or feel the automobile shake from any bodily contact. Before the victim died, she told Dr. Charles F. Cowart, about the incident, relating that Ms. Howard threatened to shoot if the victim “took another step ” toward the automobile. The victim went on to say, “I did, and she did." At trial the doctor’s testimony about that conversation was allowed into evidence, over the objection of the defense counsel. Medical testimony indicated that the victim died as a result of a gunshot wound causing traumatic injury to several internal organs of her chest. State experts testified that the bullet recovered from the victim’s body matched test bullets fired from Ms. Howard’s pistol. The investigating po”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Howard v. Gavin

2. “Although [Ms. Howard] took the stand in support of her claim of self-defense, the only other eyewitness, Gene Grim, stated that he did not see or hear the events recounted by Ms. Howard although he was seated next to her in her vehicle. The police investigators found no evidence of any other weapon aside from the pistol used by Ms. Howard to kill the victim. There were no signs of the struggle that Ms. Howard claims occurred; there were no signs of blood or residues of hair.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Howard v. Gavin

3. “Statements made for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment and describing medical history, or past or present symptoms, pain, or sensations, or the inception or general character of the cause or external source thereof insofar as reasonably pertinent to diagnosis or treatment shall be admissible in evidence. 1”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 273 Ga. App. 88 - Brown v. State