State v. Patterson’s Empirical Analysis
1979
Citation profile
41 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 45 later decisions — most recently August 2011 · most notably State v. Hutchins (1981), State v. Weeks (1988)
41 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 Mullaney v. Wilbur · Barnes v. United States · Hankerson v. North Carolina · State v. Hankerson · State v. . Holbrook
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 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Nowhere in his instructions did Judge Snepp tell the jury that it was not compelled to nor need it necessarily infer malice and unlawfulness, i.e., absence of justification. The instructions say, in essence, that unless the jury has a reasonable doubt as to the existence of malice and unlawfulness it “may infer” their existence upon proof of the necessary underlying facts. In this context, it is likely the jury understood the word “may” to mean “should.” The complained of instructions are thus susceptible to an interpretation that the jury should infer malice and unlawfulness in the absence of evidence raising a reasonable doubt as to the existence of these elements.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Johnson“Now, members of the jury, in that connection the Court instructs you that if the State proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant intentionally killed Knighten with a deadly weapon or intentionally inflicted a wound upon Knighten with a deadly weapon that proximately caused his death, you may, but need not, infer, first, that the killing was unlawful; and second, that it was done with malice; and, if nothing else appears and you so find beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant would be guilty of second-degree murder ....”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Johnson“Now if the State satisfies you beyond a reasonable doubt that Gregory Patterson intentionally shot Michael Millsap with a deadly weapon or that he intentionally inflicted a wound upon Millsap with a deadly weapon and thereby proximately caused Millsap’s death and there is no other evidence which raises in your mind a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted without malice or without justification or excuse you may infer that the defendant acted unlawfully, and with malice. [Court’s emphasis.].”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Johnson
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.