State v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 49 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 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[i]f the prosecutor volunteers his reasons for the peremptory challenges in question before the trial court rules whether the defendant has made a prima facie showing or if the trial court requires the prosecutor to give his reasons without ruling on the question of a prima facie showing, the question of whether the defendant has made a prima facie showing becomes moot[.]”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 260 N.C. App. 394 - State v. Hobbs · 249 N.C. App. 543 - State v. McQueen

2. “Defendant next contends that the trial court erred by submitting the (f)(1) mitigating circumstance to the jury over defendant's objection. Defendant informed the trial court that he would not request submission of the (f)(1) mitigator because his history of beating women was closely related to the manner of death in Ms. Plunkett's murder. Thereafter, over defendant's objection, the trial court submitted the (f)(1) mitigating circumstance. The jury did not find the existence of the (f)(1) mitigator. Defendant asserts that no reasonable juror could have found that defendant's criminal history was insignificant, and therefore, it was error for the trial court to submit the circumstance. Evidence in the present case tended to show that defendant had been convicted of numerous misdemeanor assaults on females, as well as various other offenses including communicating threats, trespass, and burglary. The most serious of defendant's prior convictions were for assaults on his wife and girlfriends. One of those assaults occurred in 1995, four in 1992, and one in 1989. The trial court concluded from the evidence that a reasonable juror could find that defendant had "no significant history of prior criminal activity," within the meaning of the statute, and that it was required to submit the (f)(1) statutory mitigating circumstance for the jury's consideration. We agree. A rational juror could have found defendant's history of prior criminal activity, which consisted mostly of misdemeano”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Greene

3. “If the prosecutor volunteers his reasons for the peremptory challenges in question before the trial court rules whether the defendant has made a prima facie showing or if the trial court requires the prosecutor to give his reasons without ruling on the question of aprima facie showing, the question of whether the defendant has made aprima facie showing becomes moot, and it becomes the responsibility of the trial court to make appropriate findings on whether the stated reasons are a credible, nondiscriminatory basis for the challenges or simply pretext. That rule does not apply in this case because the trial court made a ruling that defendant failed to make a prima facie showing before the prosecutor articulated his reasons for the peremptory challenges. . . . Thus, our review is limited to whether the trial court erred in finding that defendant failed to make a prima facie showing.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Hoffman