State v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ * * * A man fitting the description of defendant entered the home of Cornelius Roach on February 26, 1968, without any authorization or invitation, and without knocking or sounding the door chimes to advise of his presence and to attract the attention of the occupants. Instead, he simply silently opened the back door and entered the house. The opening of an unlocked door has been held to constitute the forcible breaking required for second degree burglary if done with intent to commit burglary and such intent may be inferred from the circumstances. State v. Fritz, Mo., 379 S.W.2d 589, 591 ; State v. Rhodes, Mo., 408 S.W.2d 68, 70 . Inside, defendant did not knock or call out to attract someone’s attention but, instead, opened the door to Miss James’ bedroom and entered that room. When he found Miss James there, he made conversation by asking if she was the janitor, and said he was looking for work. After leaving the Roach home, he then went a short distance and entered an apartment building. This incident was reported immediately by Mrs. Roach to the police, and when Officer Jordan arrived these facts were related to him, along with the description of the man who had entered the house. After searching the neighborhood, including the apartment building which defendant had been seen entering, the officer, a few minutes later, observed defendant coming out of still a third building in that neighborhood, carrying a paper sack of something in his arms. This was an area with whic”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. Swenson