Donald v. Decker’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(b) Except as provided in Art. 37.071, if a finding of guilty is returned, it shall then be the responsibility of a judge to assess the punishment applicable to the offense; provided, however that ... (2) in other cases where the defendant so elects in writing at the time he enters his plea in open court, the punishment shall be assessed by the same jury. If a finding of guilty is returned, the defendant may, with the consent of the attorney for the State, change his election of one who assesses the punishment, (emphasis added)”

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

2. “We hold that the filing of a written election to have the jury assess punishment immediately following the defendant's plea before the jury, satisfies Art. 37.07, Sec. 2(b) and entitles the defendant to have his punishment assessed by the jury. A strict construction of the statute would require a defendant to simultaneously verbally enter his plea before the jury and manually file his written election with the Clerk. This would result in a practice that would at its best be awkward. We do not believe that the legislature intended such a result.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Postell v. State