State v. Moody’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 federal appellate · 11 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In July 1994, defendant started having an affair with Wanda Robbins (Wanda), the wife of the victim, Donnie Robbins. Over the course of their affair, defendant and Wanda discussed various plans to murder Wanda’s husband and share the insurance proceeds. On 16 September 1994, defendant went to Loman’s Trailer Park in Thomasville, North Carolina, to the home of Donnie and Wanda Robbins. Defendant identified himself as Darryl Thompson and pretended to be interested in buying Donnie’s old Chevrolet automobile. He and Donnie went to a field near the trailer park where the automobile was located. Defendant asked Donnie to measure the automobile, purportedly to determine whether it would fit on a “roll-back” truck. As Donnie leaned over the hood of the automobile to measure it, defendant shot him in the back of the head with a .32 caliber semiautomatic pistol he had stolen the previous day from a house near the trailer park.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Moody v. Polk

2. ““if the State chooses to permit the admission of victim impact evidence and prosecutorial argument on that subject, the Eighth Amendment erects no per se bar. A State may legitimately conclude that evidence about the victim and about the impact of the murder on the victim’s family is relevant to the jury’s decision as to whether or not the death penalty should be imposed.””

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