405 So. 2d 374 - Colley v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently April 2007
12 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 283 So. 2d 1 - State v. Dixon · Jones v. State · Jacobs v. Alabama · Day v. State · 49 Ala. App. 233 - Thigpen v. State
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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"The fact that a killing is `unnecessary' cannot be used as an aggravating circumstance, Lewis v. State, 380 So.2d 970 , 971 (Ala.Cr.App. 1979). `In the sense that all killings are "unnecessary", that term hardly defines the term "especially heinous, atrocious and cruel.". . . That the killing was "unnecessary" can likewise not be used as an aggravating circumstance as it is not listed as such in § 13-11-6.' Colley v. State, 405 So.2d 374 , 389 (Ala.Cr.App. 1979), reversed on other grounds, 405 So.2d 391 (Ala. 1981)."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"The distinction between an accessory before the fact and a principal, between principals in the first and second degrees, in cases of felony, is abolished; and all persons concerned in the commission of a felony, whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense or aid or abet in its commission, though not present, must hereafter be indicted, tried and punished as principals, as in the case of misdemeanors." (Emphasis added.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Tomlin v. State“(Emphasis added.) The applicability of the accomplice statute to the death penalty statute has been discussed in Colley v. State, 405 So.2d 374 (Ala.Cr.App.1979); in a special concurrence in Ritter v. State, 375 So.2d 266 (Ala.Cr. App.1978); and by the Alabama Supreme Court in Ritter v. State, 375 So.2d 270 (Ala.1979). A general verdict of”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Tomlin v. State
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.