State v. Mercer’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

154 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 156 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““. . . the admission of an excessive number of photographs depicting substantially the same scene may be sufficient ground for a new trial when the additional photographs add nothing in the way of probative value but tend solely to inflame the jurors.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Temple · State v. Johnson

2. ““Where a person commits an act without being conscious thereof, such act is not criminal even though, if committed by a person who was conscious, it would be a crime. “This rule of Law does not apply to a case in which the mental state of the person in question is due to insanity, mental defect or voluntary intoxication resulting from the use of drugs or intoxicating liquor, but applies only to cases of the unconsciousness of persons of sound mind as, for example, somnambulists or persons suffering from the delirium of fever, epilepsy, a blow on the head or the involuntary taking of drugs or intoxicating liquor, and other cases in which there is no functioning of the conscious mind and the person’s acts are controlled solely by the subconscious mind. “When the evidence shows that a person acted as if he was conscious, the law' presumes that he then was conscious. The presumption, however, is disputable and may be overcome or questioned by evidence to the contrary.” (Emphasis added.) 275 N.C. 108, 118 .”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Fields · State v. Boone

3. “(C) When it is admitted or proven that the defendant intentionally killed the deceased with a deadly weapon, or that the defendant intentionally inflicted the wound which — with a deadly weapon, that directly resulted in the death of the deceased, the law raises two presumptions against the defendant. First of all, it raises the presumption that the killing was unlawful, and, second, the law raises the presumption that it was done with malice. And an unlawful and intentional killing with malice is murder in the second degree. And, when that is shown, the law places upon the defendant the burden of proof and to the satisfaction of the jury, not by the weight, the greater weight of the evidence and not beyond a reasonable doubt, but simply to the satisfaction of the jury, that legal provocation that will derive the term of “malice” and thus reduce it to manslaughter, or if it disproves it altogether on the ground of self-defense. (D) Defendant Excepts to that portion of the charge between (C) and (D). Exception # 9 (E) In an intentional killing, if it is established that the killing was from intentional use of a deadly weapon, then the defendant is guilty of murder in the second degree, unless he can satisfy the jury of the truth of the facts which justify his act and mitigate it to manslaughter. The burden is on the defendant to establish the facts to the satisfaction of the jury, unless they arrive out of the evidence, that he is speaking the truth. (F) Defendant Excepts to t”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Wrenn · State v. Winford