State v. Suttles’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

23 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “an act done after the exercise of reflection and judgment. “Premeditation” means that the intent to kill must have been formed prior to the act itself. It is not necessary that the purpose to kill pre-exist in the mind of the accused for any definite period of time. The mental state of the accused at the time the accused allegedly decided to kill must be carefully considered in order to determine whether the accused was sufficiently free from excitement and passion as to be capable of premeditation.”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Hollis · State v. Berry

2. “[Declarations by the defendant of an intent to kill, evidence of procurement of a weapon, the use of a deadly weapon upon an unarmed victim, the particular cruelty of the killing, infliction of multiple wounds, preparation before the killing for concealment of the crime, destruction or secretion of evidence of the murder, and calmness immediately after the killing.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Vaughn · State v. Robertson

3. “[S]erious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State of Tennessee v. Henry Lee Jones · State v. Rice