Jackson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

46 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 47 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"[M]alice aforethought is established, inter alia, upon commission of criminal homicide in the perpetration of, or in the attempt to perpetrate, a felony."3”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Fisher and Utley v. State · Whittlesey v. State

2. “"The basic premise is that '[a] person is only criminally liable for what he has caused, that is, there must be a causal relationship between his act and the harm sustained for which he is prosecuted.’ 1 Wharton’s Criminal Law § 68 (Anderson, 1957). But [i]t is not essential to the existence of a causal relationship that the ultimate harm which has resulted was foreseen or intended by the actor. It is sufficient that the ultimate harm is one which a reasonable man would foresee as being reasonably related to the acts of the defendant. ... It is not necessary that the defendant personally inflict harm upon the victim. ... To constitute the cause of the harm, it is not necessary that the defendant’s act be the sole reason for the realization of the harm which has been sustained by the victim. The defendant does not cease to be responsible for his otherwise criminal conduct because there were other conditions which contributed to the same result.” |Id.] Clark and Marshall, A Treatise on the Law of Crimes, § 4.01, p. 209 (7th ed. (1967)), puts it this way: 'An accused is not responsible for the death of another, unless that fatal harm was caused by the defendant’s act or omission, or by the behavior of persons whose actions are attributable or chargeable to the defendant.’ Actual causation may be examined in terms of the sine qua non. R. Perkins, Criminal Law 688 (2d ed. 1969). 'In order that conduct be the actual cause of a particular result it is almost always sufficient that t”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Goldring v. State · 49 Md. App. 70 - Scott v. State

3. “‘the ultimate harm is one which a reasonable man would foresee as being reasonably related to the acts of the defendant’ ”); Mangum v. Md. St. Bd. of Censors, 273 Md. 176, 185 , 328 A.2d 283, 288 (1974) (“obscenity”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Thomas · Eanes v. State