State v. Bushey’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 9 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The aim of criminal law is to protect the public against harm. The state brings criminal proceedings to protect the public interest, not to compensate the victim.... ... The focus of criminal law is upon the defendant’s behavior; the question to be asked is whether it is in the public interest to let such behavior go unpunished. If a subjective standard were always to be applied, conduct which the public at large condemns would at times go unpunished because of the fortuitous circumstance that the victim was unusually insensitive or slow to take offense. Moreover, if a subjective standard alone were applied, innocuous physical contact such as a tap on the shoulder might become the basis for an assault conviction should the ‘victim’ be unusually sensitive or easily offended.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Boone

2. “A person is guilty of assault if he intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury or offensive physical contact to another.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Pozzuoli