State v. Atkins’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

25 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Atkins farther alleges that the prosecutor committed misconduct in telling the jury that it would be an “unspeakable injustice” to consider the lesser-included offenses and to acquit on the charge of first-degree murder. This argument also lacks merit. By the phrase “unspeakable injustice,” the prosecutor was not urging the jury to convict Atkins in order to teach him a lesson, to “send a message” to society or otherwise seek justice beyond the parameters of the case, purposes for which we have not hesitated to chastise prosecutors in the past. See Salitros, 499 N.W.2d at 819 . Nor was the prosecutor encouraging the jury to convict based on personal fear of Atkins or those of Atkins’ ilk, or to inflame the jury’s passions, purposes which we have also held improper. See, e.g., [State v.] Porter, 526 N.W.2d [359,] 365 [(Minn.1995)]; Post, 512 N.W.2d at 103 . Rather, we conclude that the prosecutor was merely expressing the view that justice could only be achieved by convicting Atkins of first-degree murder, due to the overwhelming evidence establishing his guilt.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Bailey · State v. Graham