State v. Torgerson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “II.B.401. Commission research showed that an offender’s record of felony-type juvenile adjudications was an important factor in judicial sentencing decisions for young adult felons. The juvenile history item is included in the criminal history index to identify those young adult felons whose criminal careers were preceded by repeated felony-type offenses committed as a juvenile. The Commission held several public hearings devoted to the issue of using juvenile records in the criminal history index. Those hearings pointed out differences in legal procedures and safeguards between adult and juvenile courts, differing availability of juvenile records, and differing procedures among juvenile courts. As a result of these issues, the Commission decided to establish rigorous standards regulating the consideration of juvenile records in computing the criminal history score. II.B.402. First, only juvenile adjudications that would have been felonies if committed by an adult will be considered in computing the criminal history score. Status offenses, dependency and neglect proceedings, and misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor-type adjudications will be excluded from consideration. II.B.403. Second, the juvenile adjudications must result from offenses committed after the offender’s sixteenth birthday. The Commission chose the date of the offense rather than the date of adjudication to eliminate variability in application based on differing juvenile court practices. II.B.404. Third, juvenile ”

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

2. “According to the Comments, a defendant should receive a criminal history point based on his juvenile record only if his juvenile record is one of “repeated felony-type behavior.” The apparent intent is to allow use of a defendant’s juvenile record in determining his criminal history score only if the defendant has twice been through the juvenile court system and twice been adjudicated delinquent on the basis of felony-type behavior. Defendant only went through the system once and apparently was not a repeat juvenile offender. Therefore, defendant’s criminal history score should have been zero and he should have received a sentence of 24 months. Accordingly, we reduce defendant’s sentence to 24 months.”

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

3. “4. The offender is assigned one point for every two juvenile adjudications for offenses that would have been felonies if committed by an adult, provided that: a. The juvenile adjudications were pursuant to offenses occurring after the offender’s sixteenth birthday; b. The offender had not attained the age of twenty-one at the time the felony was committed for which he or she is being currently sentenced; and c. No offender may receive more than one point for prior juvenile adjudications.”

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