People v. Cook’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““But if the gunshot wound was in itself mortal or reasonably calculated from its nature and extent to produce death, it would bo no defense that the deceased, under better or different medical treatment, might have recovered; nor will the law justify a verdict of not guilty merely upon the ground that the medicines administered to restore or relieve the deceased, in point of truth, did co-operate with the wound in producing death. It would be'enough if the gunshot wound contributed mediately or inimediately to the death, but, on the other hand, if the gunshot injury was not a mortal one in itself, not reasonably calculated to produce death from its nature and extent, and death ensued, not from it, but solely from morphine poisoning, to which the injury did not materially contribute, the defendant could not in that ease be convicted.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mella v. Northern S. S. Co.

2. “the accused will be held responsible, unless [the victim's death] was occasioned, not by the wound, but by grossly erroneous medical treatment.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 270 Mich. App. 563 - Love v. City of Detroit