State v. Morgan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

76 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 77 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Penal statutes are strictly construed against the State and in favor of the defendant.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hinton v. South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole & Pardon Services · In re Jairus J. V.

2. “But where the language of the statute gives rise to doubt or uncertainty as to the legislative intent, the search for that intent may range beyond the borders of the statute itself; for it must be gathered from a reading of the statute as a whole in the light of the circumstances and conditions existing at the time of its enactment.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hinton v. South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole & Pardon Services

3. “sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, anal intercourse, or any intrusion, however slight, of any part of a person's body or of any object into the genital or anal opening of another person's body,”

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