State v. Feger’s Empirical Analysis
1960
Citation profile
48 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently April 2015 · most notably State v. Bolder (1982), Blume, Kissinger v. State (1963)
48 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 State v. Laster · Beeman v. State · State v. Moore · State v. Rasco · Bell v. Commonwealth
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 48 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“An essential element of the offense ... consisted of the state of mind; that is, negligent conduct of such reckless character as to indicate “utter indifference for human life.” Only rarely if ever is there direct proof of one’s state of mind. This essential element may, however, be established from facts and circumstances from which it reasonably may be inferred that the conduct of the accused was actuated by a reckless disregard for the consequences of his negligent acts and an utter indifference for human life. The conduct of [the accused] shown by the evidence ... tended to establish a series of connected negligent acts constituting a general course of action which had a direct bearing on his attitude and state of mind evidencing gross and culpable negligence, and therefore the evidence was relevant to an essential element of the State’s case.... From the time [the accused embarked] he started the incident or the connected course of events which culminated in the death of [the victim], and evidence of his method of driving during the entire course of events was relevant and material to the issue of whether the accident resulted from ordinary negligence on his part or from his culpable negligence.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Coates“We conclude ... the jury reasonably could find that the conduct and acts of [the accused] were such as indicated an utter indifference for human life, and that he knew or should have known that such conduct endangered human life, and that there was substantial evidence that [he] was guilty of culpable negligence in the operation of his automobile at the time and place of the occurrence which resulted in the death of [the victim].”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Coates
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.