State v. Rich’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

65 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 65 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[P]lain-error review—involves four steps, or prongs. First, there must be an error or defect—some sort of [deviation from a legal rule—that has not been intentionally relinquished or abandoned, i.e., affirmatively waived, by the appellant. Second, the legal error must be clear or obvious, rather than subject to reasonable dispute. Third, the error must have affected the appellant’s substantial rights, which in the ordinary case means he must demonstrate that it affected the outcome of the district court proceedings. Fourth and finally, if the above three prongs are satisfied, the court of appeals has the discretion to remedy the error—discretion which ought to be exercised only if the error seriously affect[s] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Meeting all four prongs is difficult, as it should be.”

   12 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Burris v. State · Yates v. State

2. “[While] it is always a defense to prove that one is less culpable than charged. It is not a defense to prove that one is more culpable than charged. One does not defend against a charge of second-degree murder by proving that one was really guilty of first-degree murder. To prove culpability at a given level, the State is not required to disprove greater culpability!.] * * * Whenever there is doubt as to the appropriate level of guilt, the defendant, of course, receives the benefit of the doubt and is convicted only at the lower level. A defendant is never, however, entitled to total exculpation simply because there is ambiguity as to his level of guilt. Different levels of culpability are not neatly abutting and mutually exclusive so as to render one necessarily inconsistent with the other.”

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

3. “The defendant is charged with the crime of involuntary manslaughter. In order to convict the defendant of involuntary manslaughter, the State must prove, one, that the defendant committed an assault; two, that the defendant killed [ ] Vendemia and three, that the act resulting in the death of [ ] Vendemia occurred during the commission of the assault. So you understand what an assault is. An assault is causing offensive physical contact to another person. So the State must prove then that the defendant caused offensive physical contact to [ ] Vendemia and that the contact was the result of an intentional or reckless act of the defendant and was not accidental, okay.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 223 Md. App. 128 - Johnson v. State