329 So. 2d 527 - Morea v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

46 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 46 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The statute provides for an opinion in cases where the defendant is sentenced to serve ten or more years in the penitentiary. Miss. Code Ann. § 9-3-41 (1972). This statute is deemed as advisory and is not to be construed as requiring needless opinions or opinions restating well established rules of law. * * * * * * ... [U]nlimited proliferation of published opinions constitutes a burden and a threat to a cohesive body of law. Even when the focus is confined to appellate courts, it is plain to every lawyer, every judge, and to most law students that many opinions are written that do not merit publication. Often the matter decided has no potential effect upon our knowledge of the law or its development, yet it results in a written opinion that takes the time and energy the judges could better spend in more attentively considering and developing resolutions of significant issues in other cases. Besides, there are limits on the capacity of judges and lawyers to produce, research, and assimilate the sheer mass of judicial opinions. Those limits are dangerously near at present and in some systems may already be exceeded. Ten years ago there were estimates that published decisions of American courts approached two and a half million. Today this figure is probably nearer three million. Common law in the United States could be crushed by its own weight if present trends continue unabated. The collegial process of an appellate court requires consideration by all members of the court of”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 475 So. 2d 163 - Willis v. State