People v. Guy Taylor’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 2 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “the nature of the defendant’s acts constituting the assault; the temper or disposition of mind with which they were apparently performed, whether the instrument and means used were naturally adapted to produce death, his conduct and declarations prior to, at the time, and after the assault, and all other circumstances calculated to throw light upon the intention with which the assault was made.”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Warren v. Smith · Thomas v. Stephenson

2. “This case, so far as regards the intention to kill, is not identical with that of murder. To find the defendant guilty of the whole charge, it is true, the jury must find the intent to kill under circumstances which would have made the killing murder — and it is not denied that had death ensued in the present case, it would have been murder. But the converse of the proposition does not necessarily follow; that, because the killing would have been murder, therefore there must have been an intention to kill. Murder may be and often is committed without any specific or actual intention to kill. . . . And no such specific intent is therefore necessary to be found. This difference was recognized in Maher v. People, above cited.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Thomas v. Stephenson · People v. Brown

3. “[O]ne may, of course, draw reasonable inferences to assist in making the finding of an actual intention to kill.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. People v. Brown