State v. Petit’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Every person who shall unlawfully enter in the night time, or shall unlawfully break and enter in the day time, any dwelling house or outhouse thereunto adjoining, and occupied therewith, or any office, shop, store, warehouse, malt house, still house, mill, factory, bank, church, school house, railroad car, barn, stable, ship, steamboat, water craft, or any building in which any goods, merchandise, or valuable things are kept for use, sale, or deposit within the body of any county, with intent to commit a misdemeanor or felony, shall be deemed guilty of burglary.”

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

2. “The common-law definition of burglary is breaking and entering the dwelling house of another in the night time with intent to commit a felony. It is not true, we think, that by codific evolution the species has been entirely lost. While there has been an enlargement of the definition, the central idea which has obtained for hundreds of years, viz., the unlawful breaking and entering of some kind of an inclosed structure, has been retained ....”

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

3. “ordinary flat car which is used by railroad companies for the transportation of wheat”

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