State v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis
1979
Citation profile
29 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently December 2011 · most notably State v. Boone (1982), State v. Lowery (1983)
29 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 Roberts v. Florida · 66 Cal. 2d 749 - People v. Wilson · State v. Foust · State v. Mercer · State v. Caddell
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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“does not apply to a case in which the mental state of the person in question is due to . . . voluntary intoxication resulting from the use of drugs or intoxicating liquor, but applies only to cases of the unconsciousness of persons of sound mind as, for example, somnambulists or persons suffering from the delirium of fever, epilepsy, a blow on the head or the involuntary taking of drugs or intoxicating liquor, and other cases in which there is no functioning of the conscious mind and the person’s acts are controlled solely by the subconscious mind.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Clowers · State v. Boone““In view of the overwhelming evidence that defendant’s mental state at the time of the commission of the offenses in question was brought about by his excessive consumption of intoxicants, we hold that the trial court did not err in refusing to instruct the jury on the defense of unconsciousness.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Fields · State v. Boone“[ i]f a person is in fact unconscious at the time he commits an act which would otherwise be criminal, he is not responsible therefor. The absence of consciousness not only precludes the existence of any specific mental state, but also excludes the possibility of a voluntary act without which there can be no criminal liability.... Unconsciousness is a complete, not a partial, defense to a criminal charge.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Clowers
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.