DeSacia v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

52 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 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““no basis to assume ... that inconsistent verdicts are the product of a jury’s disposition toward treating the accused leniently; nor can we see a basis for assuming that, in allowing inconsistent jury verdicts in criminal trials to stand, we run only ‘the risk that an occasional conviction may have been the result of compromise.’ The truth is simply that we do not know, nor do we have any way of telling how many inconsistent verdicts are attributable to feelings of leniency, to compromise, or, for that matter, to outright confusion on the part of the jury.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State Of Iowa Vs. David John Halstead · Price v. State

2. “First, in a criminal case, the government is often without the kind of “full and fair opportunity to litigate” that is a prerequisite of estoppel. Several aspects of our criminal law make this so: the prosecution’s discovery rights in criminal cases are limited, both by rules of court and constitutional privileges; it is prohibited from being granted a directed verdict or from obtaining a judgment notwithstanding the verdict no matter how clear the evidence in support of guilt, compare Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 50; it cannot secure a new trial on the ground that an acquittal was plainly contrary to the weight of the evidence, compare Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 59; and it cannot secure appellate review where a defendant has been acquitted. The absence of these remedial procedures in criminal cases permits juries to acquit out of compassion or compromise or because of “their assumption of a power which they had no right to exercise, but to which they were disposed through lenity.” It is of course true that verdicts induced by passion and prejudice are not unknown in civil suits. But in civil cases, post-trial motions and appellate review provide an aggrieved litigant a remedy; in a criminal case the government has no similar avenue to correct errors. Under contemporary principles of collateral es-toppel, this factor strongly militates against giving an acquittal preclusive effect. [Citations and footnotes omitted.]”

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

3. “Culpable negligence is something more than that slight degree of negligence necessary to support a civil action for damages and is negligence of such a degree, so gross and wanton, as to be deserving of punishment. Culpable negligence implies a reckless disregard of the consequences which might ensue from the doing of an act and constitutes conduct of such a reckless, gross and wanton character so as to indicate an utter, heedless indifference to the rights, properties, safety and even the lives of others. However, the State need not show that Mr. O’Leary intentionally caused a head-on collision with the automobile operated by Mrs. Wallace. To find culpable negligence, • the facts must be such that the fatal consequences of the act were certain or highly probable, and it must appear that death or serious bodily injury was not the result of misadventure but the natural and probable result of a wanton mind and reckless conduct. In order to constitute culpable negligence it is not necessary that the actor actually recognize that his conduct is extremely dangerous. It is enough that he knows or has reason to know of circumstances which would bring home to the realization of the ordinary, reasonable man the extremely dangerous character of his conduct.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. O'LEARY v. State