State v. Adams’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. ““Additionally, as sentencing is of no concern to the jury it is difficult to see how failing to inform the jury constitutes reversible error. The jury’s duty was to determine guilt or innocence. The amount of time which defendant might or might not serve seems irrelevant to the determination of guilty or innocence. The jury was made aware that the defendant could be sentenced to a maximum term of 21 years in prison. It is not clear that defendant suffered any prejudice because the judge did not tell the jury that under the firearms enhancement statute the defendant would have to serve a mandatory five year sentence if convicted of the crime charged. It would appear that the instructions given to the jury regarding possible imprisonment at hard labor for up to 21 years sufficiently impressed the jurors with the seriousness of the sentence that defendant could receive if found guilty.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 478 So. 2d 236 - State v. Green

2. ““The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires this court to review the evidence upon which a criminal conviction is based to determine whether it is minimally sufficient. A defendant has not been afforded due process, and his conviction cannot stand, unless, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could conclude that the state proved the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 , 99 S.Ct. 2781 , 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Additionally, we are governed by our statutory rule as to circumstantial evidence: assuming every fact to be proved that the evidence tends to prove, in order to convict, it must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. R.S. 15:438.””

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

3. “"When the court makes a finding that a firearm was used in the commission of a felony and when suspension of sentence is not otherwise prohibited...."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 448 So. 2d 1304 - State v. Victorian