Pena v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In 1968, when the statutes setting forth defenses to criminal liability were rewritten as a part of an act to provide a new Georgia Criminal Code, the "spirit of revenge" language [in section 26-1012 of the Code of 1933] was omitted from the provisions defining justification. See Ga. L. 1968, pp. 1249, 1272-1274, enacting Chapter 26-9, "Defenses to Criminal Liability," composed of Code Ann. §§ 26-901 through 26-907; Code Ann. § 26-902. The current version of the statute [OCGA § 16-3-21 ] also omits this language.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jackson v. State

2. “evidence of abuse or violent acts committed against a defendant by someone other than the victim is not admissible to support a justification defense”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Virger v. State

3. “[i]n essence the old law and the new law have the same standard as to justification of homicide.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jackson v. State