Sternlight v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[A] person is justified in using deadly force against another if he would have been justified in using force against the other in the first place, ... and when he reasonably believes that such deadly force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the other person’s use or attempted use of unlawful deadly force, and if a reasonable -person in defendant’s situation would not have retreated.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Vaughn v. State · Bartmess v. State

2. ““One of the most drastic changes made in the new penal code is that before deadly force may be used in self-defense the actor (defendant) is required to retreat if a reasonable person in the actor’s (defendant’s) situation would have retreated. V.T.C.A.Penal Code, Sec. 9.32(2). A brief consideration of the history of the doctrine of retreat is in order.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Teal v. State · Philen v. State

3. “‘Situation’ means a combination of circumstances at a given moment. The instruction given required the jury in de ciding the issue on self-defense to determine whether the appellant had the ability and opportunity to retreat considered as a part of all of the circumstances of the moment. [Emphasis added.]”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Johnson v. State · Westbrook v. State