People v. Mendes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 48 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 56 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"... The jury could have inferred that defendant shot at his pursuer thinking he was either the stranger or another. If they concluded that defendant knew his pursuer was not the stranger, they could only speculate on the question whether the shooting was, as the prosecuting attorney contended in his closing argument, in pursuance of a plan to kill if necessary to avoid arrest. The whole incident occurred within six to eight seconds. There is no evidence that defendant had any reason to fear the police, or that the deputy sheriff and. his son were in uniform so that defendant might have inferred they were officers. Thus, if the jury believed that defendant knew his pursuer was not the stranger, the evidence would sustain a conviction of no more than murder of the second degree. (Penal Code, § 189; People v. Holt, 25 Cal.2d 59 [ 153 P.2d 21 ]; People v. Valentine, 28 Cal.2d 121 [ 169 P.2d 1 ]; People v. Bender, 27 Cal.2d 164, 179 [ 163 P.2d 8 ].) ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 195 Cal. App. 2d 545 - People v. Motherwell