Midgett v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
33 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 35 later decisions — most recently June 2022 · most notably Gardner v. State (1988), State v. Brown (1992)
33 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Dixon v. State · 16 Cal. 3d 539 - People v. Steger · Boone v. State · Ford v. State · Limber v. State
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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Almost all American jurisdictions which divide murder into degrees include the following two murder situations in the category of first-degree murder: (1) intent-to-kill murder where there exists (in addition to the intent to kill) the elements of premeditation and deliberation, and (2) felony murder where the felony in question is one of five or six listed felonies, generally including rape, robbery, kidnapping, arson and burglary. Some states instead or in addition have other kinds of first-degree murder. (a) Premeditated, Deliberate, Intentional Killing. To be guilty of this form of first-degree murder the defendant must not only intend to kill but in addition he must premeditate the killing and deliberate about it. It is not easy to give a meaningful definition of the words ‘premeditate’ and ‘deliberate’ as they are used in connection with first-degree murder. Perhaps the best that can be said of ‘deliberation’ is that it requires a cool mind that is capable of reflection, and of ‘premeditation’ that it requires that the one with the cool mind did in fact reflect, at least for a short period of time before his act of killing. It is often said that premeditation and deliberation require only a ‘brief moment of thought’ or a ‘matter of seconds,’ and convictions for first-degree murder have frequently been affirmed where such short periods of time were involved. The better view, however, is that to ‘speak of premeditation and deliberation which are instantaneous, or which ta”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Brown“The appellant argues, and we must agree, that in a case of child abuse of long duration the jury could well infer that the perpetrator comes not to expect death of the child from his action, but rather that the child will live so that the abuse may be administered again and again. Had the appellant planned his son’s death, he could have accomplished it in a previous beating.... The evidence in this case supports only the conclusion that the appellant intended not to kill his son but to further abuse him or that his intent, if it was to kill the child, was developed in a drunken, heated, rage while disciplining the child. Neither of those supports a finding of premeditation or deliberation.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Brown“The evidence in this case supports only the conclusion that the appellant intended not to kill his son but to further abuse him or that his intent, if it was to kill the child, was developed in a drunken, heated, rage while disciplining the child. Neither of those supports a finding of premeditation or deliberation. Id. at 414 . (Emphasis added).”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Wright
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.