Birchett v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

33 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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Unquestionably, the appellant here had been correctly charged with murder and the trial court, entering its conviction, clearly had jurisdiction over appellant's person as well as the criminal matter involved. Appellant's actual argument is that the trial court was somehow divested of that jurisdiction upon his requesting, and the court's granting, an erroneous instruction which resulted in his conviction of a different felony from the one charged, viz., hindering apprehension instead of murder. We cannot agree. As we have already pointed out, the trial court had both personal and subject matter jurisdiction of this case. While the court may have erred at trial by granting appellant's request to instruct the jury on hindering apprehension as a lesser included offense, this error would not take away the court's subject matter jurisdiction. Appellant could have appealed the trial court's ruling to determine whether the hindering apprehension instruction was erroneously given and reversible or whether he invited such error for which he could not complain. See Harris v. State , 295 Ark. 456 , 748 S.W.2d 666 (1988). In other words, if the trial court erred in its decision or proceeded irregularly within its assigned jurisdiction, as was the case here, the appellant's remedy was by direct action in the erring court or by appeal.”

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