Powell v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 37 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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[a]lmost any object which as used or attempted to be used may endanger life or inflict great bodily harm, or which is likely to produce death or great bodily injury, can in some circumstances be a dangerous weapon.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Haight · Edwards v. United States

2. “in evaluating the propriety of a court's instructions, the reviewing court must look upon the charge as a whole without selecting and comparing separate phrases for literal content.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Ray v. American National Red Cross · Ray v. American National Red Cross

3. “A fatal stabbing is not an antiseptic event which could or should be made to look pretty. Some types of cases, particularly those involving tragic death or injury, have an inherent emotional im-pact_ The prosecutor ... [is not] required to sanitize the government’s evidence or make it appear less wrenching than it is.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Thacker v. United States