46 Ala. App. 202 - Headrick v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ * * * All of these authorities adhere to the rule that the statutory duty of the jury to fix punishment is mandatory and the trial court cannot relieve the jury of this prerogative. * * *.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 54 Ala. App. 163 - Waldrop v. State · 48 Ala. App. 684 - Holcomb v. State

2. “Tit. 14, § 415 — “Any person who is convicted of robbery shall be punished, at the discretion of the jury, by death, or by imprisonment ir. the penitentiary for not less than ten years. (Emphasis ours.) Tit. 30, § 70 — “At any time before a special venire has been drawn for the trial of any capital case, if the defendant enters a plea of guilty or in writing waives the right of a special venire, such plea of guilty or such waiver of special venire shall be entered of record, and, in either event, no special jury or venire shall be necessary for the trial of such cause; but the trial of the cause shall be had and the question of the degree of guilt must be ascertained and the punishment fixed by a jury to be selected from the panel of regular petit jurors organized by the court during the week such case is set for trial, in the same matter as juries are organized for the trial of felonies not capital; and the state and the defendant shall be allowed the same number of peremptory challenges as they are respectively allowed in the trial of felonies not capital.” (Emphasis ours.) Tit. 15, § 277 — “If a defendant upon arraignment or prior to trial pleads guilty, the court, without the intervention of a jury, shall determine the degree of the offense and fix the punishment therefor the same as a jury might fix or impose it if the case was being tried by a jury, unless in the discretion of the trial judge a jury should be impaneled to determine the degree of the offense or to fix th”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 48 Ala. App. 646 - Spencer v. State