Watts v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 25 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Rice informs our answer to the question before us. As we previously noted, the General Assembly intended for the changes to the assault statute to be in lock-step with the changes to the theft statute. Like the theft statute, nothing in the plain language of Crim. Law Art., § 3-201(b) describes battery, attempted battery, or intent to frighten as separate crimes. ... Consistent with our interpretation of the theft statute in Rice , here the assault statute refers to a single crime ....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Martinez v. Sessions

2. “[T]here must be an objection to the instruction; the objection must appear on the record; the objection must be accompanied by a definite statement of the ground for objection unless the ground for objection is apparent from the record and the circumstances must be such that a renewal of the objection after the court instructs the jury would be futile or useless.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 240 Md. App. 26 - Jones v. State

3. “No party may assign as error the giving or the failure to give an instruction unless the party objects on the record promptly after the court instructs the jury, stating distinctly the matter to which the party objects and the grounds of the objection.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 240 Md. App. 26 - Jones v. State