Conley v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 6 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““16. I charge you, gentlemen of the jury, that if the deceased made a sudden, unprovoked, murderous attack upon defendant, the deceased at the time being armed with a deadly weapon, and, in the act' of effectuating upon the defendant his murderous purpose, and after considering all the evidence in the case you find this to be true, then I charge you that the defendant was under no duty to retreat, but had the right to stand his ground and to kill his assailant.””

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

2. ““The rule that a person need not retreat or seek to escape, even though he can do so without increasing his peril, but may lawfully resist even to the extent of taking life if necessary, where he is assaulted in his own dwelling house or within the curtilage thereof, ‘is predicated on the absence of aggression or fault on his part in bringing on the difficulty.’ ””

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

3. ““These and similar charges have been held to assert correct propositions of law in the character of cases cited by ■appellant, however, in different factual situations their refusal has been held proper. Scruggs v. State, 224 Ala. 328 , 140 So. 405 .””

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