State v. Santiago’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 16 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “To establish self-defense in South Carolina, four elements must be present: (1) the defendant must be without fault in bringing on the difficulty; (2) the defendant must have been in actual imminent danger of losing his life or sustaining serious bodily injury, or he must have actually believed he was in imminent danger of losing his life or sustaining serious bodily injury; (3) if his defense is based upon his belief of imminent danger, defendant must show that a reasonably prudent person of ordinary firmness and courage would have entertained the belief that he was actually in imminent danger and that the circumstances were such as would warrant a person of ordinary prudence, firmness, and courage to strike the fatal blow in order to save himself from serious bodily harm or the loss of his life; and (4) the defendant had no other probable means of avoiding the danger.”

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

2. “that because of [the defendant’s] Asperger’s disorder he did not have the requisite mental state to commit murder nor the ability to provide a voluntary confession.” 634 S.E.2d at 27-28 . The South Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed, observing,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 576 F. App'x 167 - Goins v. Warden, Perry Correctional Institution

3. “An appellate court will not reverse the trial judge's decision regarding jury charges absent an abuse of discretion.”

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