Kennedy v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

25 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Evidence of the child’s age, the extent of [the] injuries, the nature of the assault to which the child was subjected, and the force with which the child was struck is sufficient evidence from which a jury, applying generally-accepted societal norms, can conclude whether the defendant caused the child cruel or excessive physical pain. . . . [Cits.] The mental state of a defendant required to be established to prove cruelty to children is “ ‘the absence of all elements of justification or excuse and the presence of an actual intent to cause the particular harm, or the wanton and wilful doing of an act with an awareness of a plain and strong likelihood that such harm might result.’ ” [Cit.] The jury was authorized to conclude that appellant’s actions were malicious from the evidence that he, an adult, repeatedly struck the [two-year] -old victim wilfully and wantonly with “ ‘an awareness of a plain and strong likelihood that such harm might result.’ ” [Cit.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Folson v. State

2. “The failure to give an unrequested charge is reversible error when the omission is clearly harmful and erroneous as a matter of law in that the charge as given fails to provide the jury with the proper guidelines for determining guilt or innocence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 287 Ga. App. 569 - Morgan v. State