State v. Conner’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

30 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The elderly victim, Anthony Piacentini, worked in April, 1979, as manager of Pine Tree Billiards in Portland. The defendant testified to the following: On the morning of April 18, the defendant went armed to Pine Tree Billiards in order to “get some money.” When the defendant first entered, both the victim and another man were present. The defendant stood in the doorway a while, then left at the same time as the other man. Shortly thereafter the defendant returned, pulled out a gun, cocked it, and entered Pine Tree Billiards. He told the victim that it was a hold-up, and ordered the victim to lie down. The defendant testified that his hand was shaking and the next thing he knew the gun went off. The victim fell to the floor and started moaning. The defendant took the victim’s wallet from his person and left. The defendant was not wearing a mask, and had been at Pine Tree Billiards ten or fifteen times before. The defendant then went to the apartment of Arthur Logan. Logan testified that the defendant told him “that he shot [the victim] because he — [the defendant] said the man was reaching in the back of his pocket, so [the defendant] thought probably the man had something too.” Other witnesses testified that on two other occasions the defendant said that he thought that the victim was reaching for a gun. Witnesses also testified that the defendant was calm after the shooting, slept the afternoon, went out to a local dance establishment and played pool later that evening.”

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

2. “The prosecutor, as counsel for the public interest, is especially bound by the tenets of sound professional judgment, based upon a thorough knowledge of the law, to avoid jeopardizing without reason or need the validity of a just conviction. It is the logical culmination of all of these considerations that high risk-taking by the prosecutor ... at trial may well violate the higher standards of professional trial competence and subvert the public interest in the proper performance of the prosecutor’s function.”

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

3. “contorted by the agonies of a violent death,” was”

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