Davidson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Four foreign jurisdictions have wrestled with the issue of fraudulent use of a credit card where no property was obtained, with varying results. See State v. Gonsalves, 476 A.2d 108 (R.I.1984); People v. Tarlton, 91 Ill.2d 1 , 61 Ill.Dec. 513 , 434 N.E.2d 1110 (1982); People v. Gibson, 99 Ill.App.3d 616 , 55 Ill.Dec. 24 , 425 N.E.2d 1197 (1981); State v. Williams, 389 So.2d 384 (La.1980). Though the statutes involved were somewhat different than ours, the dilemma faced by the respective courts was the same. In both Gonsalves and Gibson , the appellate courts, following jury convictions for felonies, focused on the intent of the legislature to punish fraudulent use of credit cards, regardless of whether property was obtained. Both courts affirmed the convictions by interpreting the statute expansively to include an offense for goods “sought to be obtained” by fraudulent credit card use. The Illinois appellate court, in People v. Tarlton, considered the penalty for fraudulent credit card use where the defendant was unsuccessful in obtaining goods. The applicable statute, like ours, premised the offense on the value of goods obtained. It provided for a Class 4 felony, if the value was over $150, and a Class A misdemeanor, if the value was that amount or less. In reviewing a bench trial conviction for a Class 4 felony, the court considered the appellant’s argument that the legislature provided no penalty where the credit card use was unsuccessful, and, therefore, the statute was ”

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

2. “Under appropriate facts we will modify a conviction from the greater offense to the lesser included offense and either fix punishment ourselves or remand the case to the trial court for the assessment of punishment.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 722 So. 2d 584 - Shields v. State