53 So. 3d 761 - Williams v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The position advocated by the majority is based on the conclusion that no evidence supports the concept that Williams advised, encouraged, abetted, or assisted Demetria in committing suicide. Respectfully, the majority’s position ignores the substantial evidence that Williams and Demetria had a suicide pact. By agreeing to commit suicide together, each member of the pact was encouraged to commit suicide because they no longer had to face the possibility of committing suicide alone. Williams and Demetria were lovers. The suicide pact could easily be interpreted as an agreement between them that “if you are going to kill yourself, I do not want to continue to live without you, so I will likewise kill myself.” Williams’s statement indicated that he had attempted to commit suicide, but could not muster the courage to do so. A photograph that was introduced into evidence showed that Williams had cuts on his chest, and the testimony at trial demonstrated that Williams’s blood was found in numerous places in his apartment. Based on Williams’s statement, he and Demetria both drank a substantial amount of alcohol to gain the courage to commit suicide. Viewed in the light most favorable to Williams, by drinking together, he and Demetria were each encouraged to commit suicide. It bears repeating that the statute that prohibits assisting suicide includes language that encouragement or assistance “in any manner” may be a punishable act. Additionally, there was other evidence that Williams”

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

2. “[Williams’s Attorney]: Okay. Uh, the day, the Thursday that all of this happened, Thursday leading into Friday, tell them about going to the bank. Williams: She wanted to go to the bank and get her money out and put it in her purse so that her mom could get it. She said she wasn’t sure that she could get access to the account. So we went by the bank and took out all of her money out. I don’t know exactly how much it was. [Williams’s Attorney]: It was an ATM? Williams: Yes, it was an ATM. [Williams’s Attorney]: And which bank was that? Williams: Trustmark on West Jackson. [Williams’s Attorney]: That was Friday? Williams: Yes, that was Friday. [Williams’s Attorney]: And who put the card in? Williams: I did that. She told me the pin number and I punched it in. She searched on the [I]nternet to see how much to get because she didn’t know what her balance was so she got pretty much all of it, I think. She told me how much it was, I don’t remember. [Williams’s Attorney]: Okay. Who wound up with the money? Williams: She did. She just put it in her purse somewhere, in like a little coin purse thing. She put it in there. [Williams’s Attorney]: Was the money still there when you left? Williams: It should be, yeah. [Williams’s Attorney]: Okay. Now, tell them about the phone call that you received from Jessica Smith. Williams: Jessica had been trying to call um, Demetria on her cell phone and she had turned it off because she didn’t want anybody to know where she was and she called me an”

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

3. “We had kind of talked about committing suicide together and stuff like that and we decided we were going to do it last week and she came over, it was Sunday. We just hung out together, didn’t go to class, she didn’t work, um and we just hung out for a couple of days and decided that we were going to do it that night and she, we both drank a lot and took some pills but it wouldn’t help the pain, you know. And we decided to do it in the closet so it would take longer for people to find us if somebody showed up looking for us and we got knives and went in there and we decided to do it at the same time and mine didn’t go as far in.”

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