51 N.C. App. 224 - State v. Powell’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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The defendant would be excused ... on the ground of self-defense, if first it appeared to the defendant and he believed it to be necessary to kill the victim in order to save himself from death or great bodily harm. And second, the circumstances as they appeared to the defendant at the time were sufficient to create a belief in the mind of a person of ordinary firmness. It is for you, the jury, to determine the reasonableness of the defendant’s belief in the circumstances as they appeared to him at the time. In making this determination, you should consider the circumstances as you find them to be, you find them to have existed from the evidence, including the size, age and strength of the defendant as compared to the victim; the fierceness of the assault, if any, upon the defendant; whether or not the victim had a weapon in his hand. The defendant would not be guilty of any murder ... if he acted in self-defense, as I’ve just defined it to you, and if he was not the aggressor in bringing on the fight and did not use excessive force under the circumstances .... It is for you, the jury, to determine the reasonableness of the force used by the defendant under all the circumstances as they appeared to him at the time.”

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

2. “In prosecutions for homicide and assault, where the defendant pleads and offers evidence of self-defense, evidence of the character of the victim as a violent and dangerous fighting man is admissible if such character was known to the defendant.... It is also true that when such evidence is introduced by the defendant, the court, even in the absence of a request, should instruct the jury as to the bearing which this evidence might have on defendant’s reasonable apprehension of death or great bodily harm from the attack to which his evidence pointed.”

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