State v. Heger’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
11 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2024
11 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Mullaney v. Wilbur · Dusky v. United States · Drope v. Missouri · Bates v. State Bar · Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Newman Oil Co.
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.
“"12.1-04-04. Disposition of mentally unfit defendants. No person who, as a result of mental disease or defect, lacks capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his own defense shall be tried, convicted, or sentenced for the commission of an offense so long as such incapacity endures."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“We believe a trial attorney’s opinion regarding a defendant's ability to understand legal concepts, which are part and parcel of the legal proceedings against him, and to assist counsel in his own defense should be given due consideration by the trial judge in making his decision about a defendant’s competency to stand trial. However, just as expert medical testimony is not controlling in the court’s determination of competency, neither is expert legal testimony controlling.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Shields“It is extremely difficult for trial courts to reach a decision on a defendant’s competency to stand trial if the defendant is neither manifestly unable to understand the proceedings against him and to assist in his own defense nor manifestly able to understand the proceedings against him and to assist in his own defense. Competency is not something a person wears like a coat.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Shields
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.