Springfield v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 federal appellate ·

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

1. “On the facts of this case we find it overwhelmingly improbable that appellant was the victim of ... a compromise. The prosecution never requested the death penalty, or even adverted to it. The trial judge gave it only a one-sentence mention in his charge to the jury. And the details of the crime were not such as to make it likely that the jurors seriously considered imposing the death penalty. Moreover, the evidence did not support a conviction for any lesser included offense, against which the jury might have been influenced by the judge’s passing mention of the death penalty. A statutory rape had been consummated, and the only real issue in the case was whether appellant was the perpetrator. On that question the evidence was compelling. Since we find no prejudice, the decision below is affirmed. Springfield v. United States, 131 U.S.App.D.C. 166 , 403 F.2d 572 (1968). Note that in the context of the case before us, assault with a dangerous weapon was a lesser included offense of the improper counts of second degree murder and manslaughter. Cf . Evans v. United States, 130 U.S.App.D.C. 114 , 397 F.2d 675 (1968), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 907 , 89 S.Ct. 1016 , 22 L.Ed.2d 218 (1969), quoted in note 30 supra.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Alexander