State v. Jones’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 48 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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““in a criminal case every circumstance calculated to throw any light upon the supposed crime is admissible and permissible. It is not required that evidence bear directly on the question in issue, and evidence is competent and relevant if it is one of the circumstances surrounding the parties, and necessary to be known, to properly understand their conduct or motives, or if it reasonably allows the jury to draw an inference as to a disputed fact.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Murillo · 241 N.C. App. 545 - State v. Bishop

2. “Hearing the argument of the prosecution coupled with the court’s instruction we do not believe a reasonable juror could understand the argument to call for the jury to disregard mitigating evidence simply because it appeals to a person’s sympathies. The argument attempts to and serves to reinforce tbe responsibility of the jury to reach its decision based on the evidence and the law.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Hoffman

3. “[A] mitigating circumstance is a fact, or a group of facts which do not constitute a justification or excuse for a killing, or reduce it to a lesser degree of crime than first degree murder, but which may be considered as extenuating, or reduces the moral culpability of the killing, and makes it less deserving of extreme punishment than other first degree murders.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Conaway