State v. Sonnier’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 120 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 129 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2013 · most notably 445 So. 2d 1198 - State v. Wright (1984), State v. Smith (1983)
6 federal appellate · 120 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 Jackson v. Virginia · Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Chapman v. State of California · In the Matter of Samuel Winship · Gregg v. Georgia
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 129 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A change of venue shall be granted when the applicant proves that by reason of prejudice existing in the public mind or because of undue influence, or that for any other reason, a fair and impartial trial cannot be obtained in the parish where the prosecution is pending. In deciding whether to grant a change of venue the court shall consider whether the prejudice, the influence, or the other reasons are such that they will affect the answers of jurors on the voir dire examination or the testimony of witnesses at the trial.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. State v. Adams · State v. Baldwin“Every sentence of death shall be reviewed by this court to determine if it is excessive. In determining whether the sentence is excessive the court shall determine:”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Maggio v. Williams · State v. Berry“especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.