State v. Singleton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The statutory injunction, that an examination be ordered when the circuit judge ‘has reason to believe’ that a defendant is not mentally competent to stand trial, involves the exercise of the discretion of the trial judge in evaluating the facts presented on the question of competency. Therefore, whether a competency examination is ordered is within the discretion of the trial judge and a refusal to grant such an order will not be set aside unless there is a clear showing of abuse of such discretion.”

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

2. “Whenever a judge ... has reason to believe that a person on trial before him, charged with the commission of a criminal offense or civil contempt, is not fit to stand tidal because the person lacks the capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his own defense as a result of a lack of mental capacity, the judge shall: (1) Order examination of such person by two examiners designated by the Department of Mental Health or the Mental Retardation Department or both....”

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