Riffle v. King’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently December 1986
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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 2247 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Thompson v. City of Louisville · Maloy v. First Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n of West Palm Beach · Robert J. Grundler and Joseph L. Jelly v. State of North Carolina · J. J. Dix, Inc. v. Commissioner · Johnson v. Florida
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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““[P]roof of the cause of death is not limited to facts learned from the autopsy. [Citations omitted.] The testimony of the pathologist raises questions regarding the cause of death by pointing out the absence of organic disease which could have caused the death and ... although the testimony does not positively show that death resulted from foul play, it does not exclude such a possibility. In addition to the testimony of the pathologist, there is the testimony of the coroner, ... to the effect that the conditions he observed were consistent with death from suffocation but not consistent with death from natural causes or exposure. Because circumstantial evidence is admissible under West Virginia law to show that death resulted from criminal agency, this court is able to review the circumstances surrounding the death as well as the medical testimony regarding the cause of death in order to determine whether any evidence was presented regarding the essential elements of the corpus delicti. ” [Emphasis in original.]”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.