State v. Waters’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

32 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The test of whether a woman’s will to resist is overcome by threats of imminent physical violence likely to cause great bodily harm is subjective and it need not be expressed in terms of fear and incapability to resist in every case. Some women may respond to the threat of gunpoint without great fear or being rendered incapable of resisting. Resistance may be completely and imminently dangerous. In such a situation, fear or terror not to resist as an expression of nonconsent may be supplanted by a strong motivation or belief which induces the choice to submit. The choice under such conditions, while philosophically a choice, is legally unfair and is legally no choice; it does not constitute legal consent. Resistance, or the lack of resistance ... is not the central issue in rape. It is only some evidence of whether the woman’s will to resist is overcome under the circumstances and this question depends upon other factors.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 64 Wis. 2d 590 - Dumer v. State

2. ““It must be remembered that the term ‘utmost resistance’ is a relative rather than a positive term. What would be ‘utmost resistance’ on the part of a weak and nervous person, with a temperament easily frightened, might be the veriest sham on the part of a robust person in good health, whose nerves and courage are normal.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 64 Wis. 2d 590 - Dumer v. State

3. “. . whether the evidence adduced, believed and rationally considered by the jury, was sufficient to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Johnson (1960), 11 Wis. 2d 130, 137 , 104 N. W. 2d 379 . See also State v. Waters (1965), 28 Wis. 2d 148, 153 , 135 N. W. 2d 768 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 40 Wis. 2d 103 - Finger v. State