Browning v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

72 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 72 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “An indictment is sufficient if the offense is stated with sufficient certainty and particularity to enable the court to know what judgment to pronounce, and the defendant to know what he is called upon to answer and whether he may plead an acquittal or conviction thereon. The true test of the sufficiency of an indictment is not whether it could be made more definite and certain, but whether it contains the necessary elements of the offense intended to be charged and sufficiently apprises the defendant of what he must be prepared to meet.”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Wilkes · Cutner v. State

2. “(A) A person is guilty of burglary in the first degree if the person enters a dwelling without consent and with intent to commit a crime in the dwelling, and either: (1) when, in effecting entry or while in the dwelling or in immediate flight, he or another participant in the crime: (a) is armed with a deadly weapon or explosive; or (b) causes physical injury to a person who is not a participant in the crime; or (c) uses or threatens the use of a dangerous instrument; or (d) displays what is or appears to be a knife, pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, machine gun, or other firearm; or (2) the burglary is committed by a person with a prior record of two or more convictions for burglary or housebreaking or a combination of both; or (3) the entering or remaining occurs in the nighttime.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mathis v. State · State v. Wright

3. “An indictment is sufficient if the offense is stated with sufficient certainty and particularity to enable the court to know what judgment to pronounce, and the defendant to know what he is called upon to answer and whether he may plead an acquittal or conviction thereon.”); Browning v. State, 320 S.C. 366, 368 , 465 S.E.2d 358, 359 (1995) (”

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