State v. Watson’s Empirical Analysis
1994
Citation profile
76 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 83 later decisions — most recently June 2019 · most notably State v. Fernandez (1997), State v. Coble (2000)
76 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 Lord Electric Co. v. United States · State v. Odom · Mayers v. United States · State v. Smith · State v. Powell
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 83 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[m]ere words, however abusive or insulting are not sufficient provocation to negate malice and reduce the homicide to manslaughter. Rather, this level of provocation must ordinarily amount to an assault or threatened assault by the victim against the perpetrator.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“As a general rule, evidence of a victim's character is not admissible. The rule, however, has exceptions. An accused, for example, may introduce evidence of a pertinent trait of character of the victim that is relevant to an issue in the case. Where an accused argues that he acted under self-defense, the victim's character may be admissible for two reasons: to show defendant's fear or apprehension was reasonable or to show the victim was the aggressor.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Where an accused argues that he acted under self-defense, the victim’s character may be admissible for two reasons: to show defendant’s fear or apprehension was reasonable or to show the victim was the aggressor. Defendant may admit evidence of the victim’s character to prove defendant’s fear or apprehension was reasonable and, as a result, his belief in the need to kill to prevent death or imminent bodily harm was also reasonable. Such evidence may be proved by opinion testimony .... ‘The purpose of such evidence is not to prove conduct by the victim, but to prove defendant’s state of mind.’ Such an opinion is relevant on the issue of defendant’s state of mind only to the extent that defendant has knowledge of this opinion. When defendant knows of the violent character of the victim, such evidence is relevant and admissible to show the jury that defendant’s apprehension of death and bodily harm was reasonable . . . .Evidence of the victim’s character may also be admissible ‘because it tends to shed some light upon who was the aggressor since a violent man is more likely to be the aggressor than is a peaceable man.’ Defendant, to prove that the victim was the aggressor, may present evidence of the victim’s violent character, ‘whether known or unknown to the defendant at the time of the crime.’”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Jordan
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.