339 So. 2d 186 - Meeks v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 21 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Defendant was able to appreciate the criminality of his conduct and that there is no basis for concluding that the capacity of the Defendant to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired. There was some conflicting testimony on this point. The Defendant was examined by two psychiatrists and two clinical psychologists. All of the evidence from the experts indicated that the Defendant was able to distinguish that which is "right" from that which is "wrong" and that he was legally sane at all material times. However, the testimony from one clinical psychologist, Dr. Charles R. Figley, advanced the theory that the Defendant, at the time he actually pulled the trigger, did so from impulsive behavior which had a direct causal relationship to his experience in Vietnam. This particular witness had written a book consistent with this theory, but readily admitted that he was one of the few people who have done any work in this area. The theory or opinion was to some extent also supported by the testimony of another clinical psychologist, Dr. McMahon. Her opinion suggested that the Defendant suffered from organic brain damage and that he was of border-line intelligence. The testimony of the two clinical psychologists was disputed by the two psychiatrists. Taken as a whole, together with the Court's own observations of the Defendant during the trial, as well as his testimony in pretrial proceedings, this Court concludes that there were no mental or psycholo”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 442 So. 2d 185 - Johnson v. State

2. “"Upon consideration, it was at the time of sentencing and is now, some hours later as the sentence of death is justified in writing, the inescapable conclusion of the undersigned that sufficient aggravating circumstances exist in the facts to justify the death penalty. The murder of the victim by the defendant was for the express purpose of executing the victim to prevent his identifying the defendant, so that the defendant could flee after having committed robbery at gunpoint for pecuniary gain which robbery was witnessed by the victim and to prevent the lawful arrest of the defendant and thus this conscienceless murder was designed to hinder the enforcement of laws." Meeks, 339 So.2d at 190, 191 . (Emphasis added).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Johnson v. State

3. “The Court also finds, as an aggravating circumstance, that the capital felony was committed with the motive of avoiding and preventing arrest, was committed for pecuniary gain and to hinder the enforcement of law. Fla.Stat. 921.141(6)(e)(f)(g)." [3]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Johnson v. State