State v. Coman’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

94 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 94 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under the rule of lenity, criminal statutes must be strictly construed in favor of the defendant.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Baker · State v. Pollman

2. “various provisions of an act in pari materia with a view to reconciling and bringing the provisions into workable harmony, if possible.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 55 Kan. App. 2d 595 - State v. Green · 58 Kan. App. 2d 519 - State v. Dunham

3. “[i]f . . . there are two reasonable and sensible interpretations of a criminal statute, the rule of lenity requires the court to interpret its meaning in favor of the accused.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Jordan · State v. Eckert