Palmer v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “'included testimony that the victim, Charles Williams, had beaten and raped Palmer's sister-in-law, had demanded that the sister-in-law accompany Williams to a liquor store although she did not wish to go, had refused to leave when asked by Palmer to do so, had taunted Palmer, and had appeared to reach for a gun.'”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Morrison v. State · Palmer v. State

2. “VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER “A person who knowingly or intentionally kills another human being while acting under sudden heat commits voluntary manslaughter, a class B felony.” The essential elements of this crime are: 1. The voluntary killing of a human being 2. Without malice, and 3. In sudden heat. Sudden heat as used herein means an access [sic] of rage or anger suddenly arising from a contemporary provocation occurring at the time of the killing.”

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

3. “The instruction at one point suggested to the jury that sudden heat was an element of the crime of voluntary manslaughter. At another point, it cited the voluntary manslaughter statute and informed the jury that the sudden heat was a mitigating factor. Although inartfully drafted and, in fact, technically erroneous, the instruction does not constitute fundamental error because it did not deprive the defendant of his due process rights.”

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