State v. Flemming’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““An escape by an inmate of a mental institution lawfully committed thereto by court order, like that of a prisoner held in jail on a criminal charge, cannot be viewed otherwise than an outrage to the dignity of the law and a public disrespect for the lawful authority by which he is detained. Such conduct constitutes a breach of the public peace, for it frustrates judicial process sanctioning control of the freedom of a person and is an affront to judicial authority and to the actual feelings and demands of the community. The common law casts a duty upon the lawfully committed inmate of a mental institution acquitted of crime by reason of mental disease or defect to yield obedience to lawful authority, especially in view of the State’s special interest in the confinement of such people resulting from the fact that there has been a judicial determination that they have already endangered the public safety or have demonstrated a propensity toward criminal activity.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Beauchene