James v. Boles’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 federal appellate · 2 district · 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It appears that petitioner was aware of the proceedings and understood their import. The standard by which the courts must abide in regard to the mental capacity required of one to stand trial is ably stated by the Court in Lyles v. United States, 103 U.S.App.D.C. 22 , 254 F.2d 725, 729, 730 (1957): “ ‘As of the time of the trial the question, as prescribed by statute, is whether the accused is mentally competent to understand the nature of the charges against him and to assist in his defense. He may have a mental disease, and the mental disease may have been the cause of his criminal act, and he may be suffering from the same disease at the time of his trial; but it is a scientific fact that he nevertheless may be competent to stand trial under this definition of competency. A paranoiac or a pyromaniac may well understand the charges against him and be able to assist in his defense. “To assist in his defense” of course does not refer to legal questions involved but to such phases of a defense as a defendant usually assists in, such as accounts of the facts, names of witnesses, etc. * * * 9 »”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Lee v. Alabama · 444 F. Supp. 1049 - Springer v. Collins