Sills v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 38 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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “On or about the 7th day of September, 1981, in Huntington County, in the State of Indiana, Shawn Lynn Sills did knowingly or intentionally kill another human being, Mary Haines, by striking and beating at and against the body of the said Mary Haines with his fists and did then and there and thereby cause said Mary Haines to die.”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wedmore v. State · Lynch v. State

2. “"The murder statute, the same being IC § 35-42-1-1, reads in pertinent part as follows: `A person who: (1) Knowingly or intentionally kills another human being; ... .' To hold that this statute does not contain the language required in the voluntary intoxication statute, to me is a strain of statutory interpretation. The murder statute clearly requires an intentional act on the part of the perpetrator. To interpret the statute to require the specific language that is contained in the quotes of the statute is to make the statute ludicrous indeed. * * * * * * "This brings us to the proposition in the case at hand wherein the majority holds that intoxication is a defense only in cases where the phrases `with intent to' or `with an intention to' appear in the statute. Although this is the exact language of the statute above quoted, it poses an impossible situation in criminal jurisprudence. In order to form intent in any event the perpetrator must be acting consciously and competently. Any situation which renders the perpetrator incapable of forming intent frees him from the responsibility of his acts. * * * * * * "[I]f a completely non compos mentis inmate of a mental hospital managed to escape his guards, acquire a motor vehicle and speed into the traffic of the city, thereby violating one or more traffic laws, he of course could not be prosecuted because he is non compos mentis, not only incapable of standing trial, but also incapable of forming the intent to commit the act wh”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Sanchez v. State · Wright v. State

3. ““A review of the record in this case shows that the three exhibits were not being offered for the truth of the matters contained in them. Rather, they were being offered to establish the foundation of Dr. Duly’s diagnosis. Before each exhibit was offered into evidence, Dr. Duly was asked if it constituted material that he considered or relied upon in his evaluation of the defendant. No attempt was made to assert that the facts contained in the exhibits were true. While it might have been better not to have admitted these documents directly into evidence, see Smith v. State (1972) 259 Ind. 187 , 285 N.E.2d 275 , it was not necessarily an error to do so. In short, the trial judge has wide discretion in the admission of evidence. Under the circumstances of this case, we cannot say that the trial judge exceeded his discretion in allowing the state to admit these exhibits.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wilson v. Kauffman