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← 434 A2D 1346 - Whalen v. State

Whalen v. State’s Empirical Analysis

1981

Citation profile

37
cited by 37 later decisions
5
states following
January 2019
most recently cited

2 federal appellate · 33 state decisions

How this case has been cited

Cited by 37 later decisions — most recently January 2019 · most notably 149 Ill. 2d 423 - People v. Melock (1992), Flamer v. State (1984)

2 federal appellate · 33 state decisions

1701981199020002010decided

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 Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Blockburger v. United States · Gregg v. Georgia · Rhode Island v. Innis · Benton v. Maryland

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

  1. “the defendant was found guilty of rape, itself a statutory aggravating circumstance, we are not prepared to assume the defendant was not prejudiced by this error”
    3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
  2. “[t]he murder was committed for pecuniary gain.”
    2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
  3. “Applied literally, the above quoted language of § 206 might lead to the conclusion that Rape First Degree is a lesser included offense of Felony Murder (Rape), once the former may be ‘established by the proof of the same or less than all the facts required to establish the commission of the’ latter. However, we do not believe that the Legislature intended such a literal application. Prior to the enactment of § 206, this Court rejected the contention that the underlying felony is a ‘lesser offense included in the greater crime of (felony) murder ... ’ Jenkins v. State, Del.Supr., 240 A.2d 146, 149 (1968), aff’d, 395 U.S. 213 , 89 S.Ct. 1677 , 23 L.Ed.2d 253 (1969). We find nothing in the provisions of § 206 or elsewhere in the Delaware Criminal Code which indicates an intention to legislatively overrule the Jenkins holding. Moreover, the societal interests sought to be protected by the statutes here involved are entirely separate and distinct. The Rape statute seeks to protect women from sexual assault, while the Murder statute seeks to protect human life. Consequently, we believe that the Legislature intended to leave the Jenkins rule intact when enacting § 206, and we hold that Rape is not a lesser included offense of Felony Murder (Rape). Compare Whalen v. United States, supra, 445 U.S. [684] at 712, 100 S.Ct. [1432] at 1449, 63 L.Ed.2d [715] at 730 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting). Therefore, we conclude that the Legislature did intend to authorize separate convictions and sent”
    1 later decision quote this exact passage

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.