Buchanan v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, provides: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment applies to civil in rem forfeitures^ 8 ] and the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Bajakajian, [ 9 ] held that a forfeiture constitutes an excessive fine “if it is grossly disproportional to the gravity of a defendant’s offense.” 10 In Howell, [ 11 ] the Supreme Court of Georgia . . . conclud[ed] that trial courts inquiring into whether a forfeiture constitutes an excessive fine should take into account the following considerations: (1) the harshness, or gross disproportionality, of the forfeiture in comparison to the gravity of the offense, giving due regard to (a) the offense committed and its relation to other criminal activity, (b) whether the claimant falls within the class of persons for whom the statute was designed, (c) the punishments available, and (d) the harm caused by the claimant’s conduct; (2) the nexus between the property and the criminal offenses, including the deliberate nature of the use and the temporal and spatial extent of the use; and (3) the culpability of each claimant. 12”

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

2. “[W]hen the evidence is uncontroverted and no question regarding the credibility of witnesses was presented below, we conduct a de novo review of the trial court's application of law to the undisputed facts, ... owe no deference to the trial court's conclusions of law[, and] ... we are free to apply anew the legal principles to the facts.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. ROUNSAVILLE v. STATE of Georgia.