361 So. 2d 654 - Evans v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 35 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1995 · most notably Hopper v. Evans (1982), Evans III v. Bennett a-868 (1979)
2 federal appellate · 23 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Proffitt v. Florida · 361 So. 2d 607 - Jacobs v. State
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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"THE COURT Will you please rise? The Court having conducted a Hearing pursuant to Section 3 of Act No. 213 of the Legislature of Alabama, Regular Session 1975 to determine whether or not the Court will sentence Mr. Wayne Eugene Ritter to death or to life imprisonment without parole; and the Court having considered the evidence presented at the trial and at said sentence hearing, the Court makes the following findings of fact: "The Court first considers the aggravating circumstances as described in Section 6 of said Act 213: "(a) The Court finds that the Capital Felony was committed by Mr. Ritter while he was under sentence of imprisonment although he was serving the remainder of his sentence on parole at the time; "(b) The Court finds that Mr. Ritter has been previously convicted of another felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person, to wit: the offense of robbery; "(c) The Court finds that Mr. Ritter knowingly on approximately thirty-nine previous occasions created a great risk of death to many persons; "(d) The Court finds that the Capital Felony was committed while Mr. Ritter was an accomplice in the commission of a robbery; "(e) The Court finds that the Capital Felony was not committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody; "(f) The Court finds the Capital Felony was not committed for pecuniary gain, within the meaning of Section 6(f) of said Act 213; "(g) The Court finds the Capital Felony was not ”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"Q. Mr. Ritter, do you want to say anything to these people sitting in the Jury Box as to what you want them to do when they go back there? "A. Well, I think there are two considerations. First, we did kill Mr. Nassar. We knew we might have to kill somebody during any robbery. We had discussed it before. If anybody went for a gun, that's what was going to happen. We did kill him, so, really, the only thing you can come back with is the death penalty. And the other consideration is, if you give me life, or if I got life imprisonment, I could get out in ten or fifteen years, and when I got out, I know where everybody on the Jury lives, and I wouldn't appreciate being in prison for ten or fifteen years, so I think I would have to come after you. That's about it."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“"John Louis Evans, III, and Wayne Eugene Ritter were each charged by indictment with the first degree murder of one Edward A. Nassar by shooting him with a pistol while in the commission of a robbery, being a `capital murder' offense within the meaning of Act No. 213, Section 2, Subsection (b), Acts of Alabama 1975, Regular Session."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.