Foster v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

33 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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The presumption of law is that every person charged with crime is sane, and the presumption, therefore, is that the defendant was sane when he committed the act. If a person would avoid the consequences of his act on the ground of his inability to perceive and know such act to be wrong, it is incumbent upon him at least to raise a doubt in the minds of the jury as to his sanity. If the jury believed from the evidence that defendant was sane, the law implies deliberation and premeditation from the circumstances of the killing. The degree of the crime is not dependent upon defendant’s intelligence or lack of intelligence, his power to reason or not to reason. If he knew the nature and quality of his act, and that it was wrong, ... he is amenable to punishment therefor to the same extent as if he were one whose sanity is not questioned. The law does not discriminate between degrees of intelligence in fixing the penalty.””

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

2. ““We can see no .reason for submitting the issue of second degree murder or manslaughter to the jury when the evidence conclusively shows defendant guilty of the highest degree of the crime or not guilty at all by reason of his insanity. There is no middle ground in such case, no evidence tending to show the lower degree of murder or manslaughter.””

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