State v. Lee’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “a state of mind which leads one to intentionally do a wrongful act to the injury of another out of actual hatred, or with an evil or unlawful purpose. It may be established by evidence of actual hatred, or by proof of a deliberate or fixed intent to do injury. It may be found from the acts and conduct of the defendant, and the means used in doing the wrongful and injurious act. Malice requires only such deliberation that would make a person appreciate and understand the nature of the act and its consequences, as distinguished from an act done in the heat of passion.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Shanahan · State v. Bentley

2. “A person is justified in using reasonable force if she reasonably believes the force is necessary to defend herself from any imminent use of unlawful force. If the State has proved any one of the following elements, the defendant was not justified: 1. The defendant started or continued the incident which resulted in injury- 2. An alternative course of action was available to the defendant. 3. The defendant did not believe she was in imminent danger of death or injury and the use of force was not necessary to save her. 4. The defendant did not have reasonable grounds for the belief. 5. The force used by the defendant was unreasonable.”

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

3. “[t]he relationship that must be shown between the state of mind that is malice aforethought and the homicidal act is more accurately characterized as a causal relationship than a temporal relationship.”

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