Roberts v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2012 · most notably Shannon v. United States (1994), Knight v. State (1981)
1 federal appellate · 24 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 Lyles v. United States · Commonwealth v. Mutina · Kuk v. State · People v. Cole · 314 So. 2d 573 - Johnson v. State
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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * * * * "Sometimes a defendant may not want such an instruction given. If that appears affirmatively on the record, we would not regard failure to give it as grounds for reversal. Otherwise, whenever hereafter the defense of insanity is fairly raised the trial judge shall instruct the jury as to the legal meaning of a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, in accordance with the view expressed in this opinion." * * * * * *”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“I would further charge you that when a person tried for an offense shall be acquitted by the jury for the cause of insanity, that is, as I have explained it to you, found not guilty by reason of insanity, the jury in giving their verdict of not guilty, shall state that it was given for such cause. If the discharge or going at large of the defendant shall be considered by the Court manifestly dangerous to the peace and safety of the public, the Court shall order him to be committed to jail or to a mental institution, to be cared for as an insane person, and such person shall be held in custody until released by order of the committing Court, or the Court may give him into the care of his family or friends, on their giving satisfactory security for the proper care and protection of such person.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Smith v. State · Bacon v. State“Jurors, in common with people in general, are aware of the meanings of verdicts of guilty and not guilty. It is common knowledge that a verdict of not guilty means that the prisoner goes free and that a verdict of guilty means that he is subject to such punishment as the court may impose. But a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity has no such commonly understood meaning.... It means neither freedom nor punishment. It means the accused will be confined in a hospital for the mentally ill until the superintendant of such hospital certifies, and the court is satisfied, that such person has recovered his sanity and will not in the reasonable future be dangerous to himself or others.... [T]he jury has a right to know the meaning of this possible verdict as accurately as it knows by common knowledge the meaning of the other two possible verdicts.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Shickles
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.