Minnick v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

27 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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “On the afternoon of October 26, 1981, James D. Payne returned from work to his home in Greencastle, Indiana. He discovered his wife’s body on the bedroom floor. He immediately called police. The ensuing investigation revealed Martha Payne had been raped, anally sodomized, stabbed in the right rear shoulder, and struck on the head with a table lamp. In addition, ligature marks on her neck indicated she had been strangled, and burn marks on her ankles showed the perpetrator had attempted to electrocute her as well. The cause of death was determined to be the knife wound in her upper back, which penetrated her lung and severed her pulmonary artery. That night Sergeant Rodney Cline became aware that a “Dukes of Haz-zard” — type car had been observed parked in a college fraternity’s lot near the victim’s home around the time of her death. Cline confirmed the driver’s description matched that of appellant, who had spoken to Cline outside the victim’s house that afternoon to apologize for a dispute the two had engaged in a week earlier concerning the involuntary towing of appellant’s distinctive orange Dodge Charger. Appellant was subsequently arrested and search warrants were obtained for his car and for specimens of his blood and hair for comparison with samples taken at the crime scene. A strand of hair found adhering to a length of electrical wire in appellant’s car was determined to be of common origin with hair samples taken from the victim. Laboratory tests revealed the victi”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Minnick v. State · 151 F. Supp. 2d 1015 - Minnick v. Anderson

2. “the crime was the kind of horrendous crime that the legislature anticipated when it listed rape or robbery as aggravating circumstances and, therefore, ... that the circumstances of the crime, the violence of the attempted electrocution, the strangling and the knifing are those kinds of aggravating circumstances; and (4) the rape and after death violation of Martha Payne's body.” (R. at 306.) . The statutory aggravating circumstance relied upon by the trial court and the State requires a finding that”

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

3. “In the instant case, however, the evidence at trial revealed that appellant shares his culpability with no one. He alone bears criminal responsibility for this singularly brutal homicide in the course of which the victim was raped, sodomized, stabbed, bludgeoned, strangled, and electrocuted. In light of these circumstances, it seems fair to state that no reasonable person would find a death sentence inappropriate here.”

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