State v. Perkins’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 20 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. “On 18 April 1992 [Perkins] was living with his mother in Greenville. After visiting with his family and drinking several beers, [Perkins] went to the home of Theia Esther Moore, a woman he had been dating for two months and had known for ten or eleven years. Moore lived in the house with her two children and four grandchildren, one of whom was the victim. Moore shared a room with two of her grandchildren, three-year-old Michael “Champ” Moore and the victim, who slept together on a daybed. After leaving the Moore house for a short time, [Perkins] returned and drank more beer and smoked crack cocaine. At approximately 3:00 a.m. on 19 April, [Perkins] entered Moore’s bedroom, where she and her two grandchildren were present. [Perkins] watched a pornographic video and then tried to have sex with Moore, who was surprised that he was in the room. Moore discovered a large butcher knife under her pillow, and [Perkins] explained that he had used it to open a can of beer. Moore ordered [Perkins] out of the house. As she walked him to the door, Champ rose from his bed and claimed that [Perkins] had bitten his finger. After [Perkins] left, he called Moore twice to insist that he had not bitten Champ. Moore then went to sleep; when she awoke at around 9:00 a.m., she observed that Champ’s finger was swollen. At approximately 11:30 a.m., while the family was preparing to go to church for Easter services, Moore discovered that JoJo was dead. The evidence tended to show that sometime early th”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Perkins v. Lee

2. “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.”

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