State v. Sullivan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The defendant has raised in this case what is called the defense of self-defense. Self-defense is a complete defense. And if it is established, you must find the defendant not guilty. The State had the burden of disproving self-defense by proof beyond a reasonable doubt as I have already defined that term for you. If you have a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt after considering all of the evidence, including the evidence of self-defense, then you must find the defendant not guilty. On the other hand, if you have no reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt after considering all the evidence, including the evidence of self-defense, then you must find the defendant guilty. The following elements are required to establish self-defense.... First, the defendant must be without fault in bringing on the difficulty. If the defendant's conduct was the type which was reasonably calculated to and did provoke a deadly assault, the defendant would be at fault in bringing on the difficulty and would not be entitled to an acquittal based on self-defense. The second element of self-defense is that the defendant was actually in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury or that the defendant actually believed that he was in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. If the defendant was actually in imminent danger, it must be shown that the circumstances would have warranted a person of ordinary firmness and courage to strike the fatal blow to prevent death or serious ”

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