Ward v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 55 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 57 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Appellant’s initial argument raises two challenges to the constitutionality of the capital murder statute, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-10-101 (Supp. 1991). As we have previously addressed appellant’s constitutional arguments, our discussion will be brief. First, appellant argues that the homicide statutes’ 1989 revisions, which upgraded “premeditated and deliberated” murder from first-degree murder to capital murder, violate the constitutional prohibition against sentencing guidelines that fail to sufficiently narrow jury discretion in death penalty cases. Under Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-604 (Supp. 1991), the death penalty may not be imposed unless the state can prove the existence of an “aggravating circumstance.” In O’Rourke v. State, 295 Ark. 57 , 746 S.W.2d 52 (1988), we emphasized the following language from the Supreme Court’s decision in Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231 (1988), where the Supreme Court explained that, in order to genuinely narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty, a state may choose between two capital sentencing schemes: The legislature may itself narrow the definition of capital offenses, ... so that the jury finding of guilt responds to this concern, or the legislature may more broadly define capital offenses and provide for narrowing by jury findings of aggravating circumstances at the penalty phase. O'Rourke, supra, at 64, 56 (quoting Lowenfield, supra, at 246 ). Under Arkansas’ revised capital sentencing scheme, the constitutionally-required”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sheridan v. State · Dansby v. State

2. “In Johnson v. Mississippi, 486 U.S. 578 (1988), the Supreme Court held that a finding of aggravating circumstances based on a prior felony conviction could not stand if the prior felony conviction was later overturned. The Supreme Court noted that the prosecutor in Johnson had relied solely on the document of conviction, and had not introduced any evidence relating to the prior felony itself. Id. at 585 . We recently relied on the Johnson holding in Sanders v. State, 308 Ark. 178 , 824 S.W.2d 353 (1992), to remand a death sentence for resentencing. In the Sanders case, the state relied solely on the defendant’s prior conviction to establish the aggravating circumstance of a previous felony. In this case, if the state did not introduce evidence regarding the circumstances of appellant’s prior manslaughter conviction, the validity of the jury’s aggravating circumstances finding would remain contingent upon Pennsylvania not reversing appellant’s prior conviction. In light of the Johnson holding, the probative value of the extraneous evidence increases significantly.”

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

3. “We agree with appellant that the admission of these unsubstantiated allegations was prejudicial error in the penalty phase of the trial. The state offered no proof that appellant had previously committed the offenses of murder, rape, and robbery. While we stated earlier that the state is not limited to admission of a prior conviction in proving that a defendant previously committed a prior felony, mere allegations do not constitute proof. In this case, the prejudicial effect of the rape and robbery allegations was compounded by the photographs depicting an unclothed victim and the testimony regarding the strewn contents of the victim’s purse.”

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