Nelson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “1. Our law provides that a person commits murder if he knowingly or intentionally causes the death of an individual. 2. A person acts “knowingly” or with “knowledge”, with respect to the nature of Ms conduct when, he is aware of the nature of his conduct. A person acts “intentionally’ or with “intent” with respect to the result of his conduct, when it is his conscious objective or desire to cause the result. A person acts “recklessly” or is “reckless” with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct when he is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and a degree that its disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the standpoint of defendant. [[Image here]] 3. Now, if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 14th day of May, 1993, in Fannin County, Texas, the defendant, CLARENCE SIMMS AKA A.C. SIMMS, intentionally or knowingly caused the death of an individual, R.T. Sweet, by shooting him with a gun, you will find the defendant guilty of Murder as charged in the indictment. Unless you so find beyond a reasonable doubt, or if you have a reasonable doubt thereof, you acquit the defendant of murder and next consider whether he is guilty of the lesser included offense of aggravated assault. 4. A person commits an assault if h”

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

2. “(a) A person commits an offense if he causes the death of an individual under circumstances that would constitute murder under Section 19.02 of this code, except that he caused the death under the immediate influence of sudden passion arising from an adequate cause. (b) `Sudden passion' means passion directly caused by and arising out of provocation by the individual killed or another acting with the person killed which passion arises at the time of the offense and is not solely the result of former provocation. (c) `Adequate cause' means cause that would commonly produce a degree of anger, rage, resentment, or terror in a person of ordinary temper, sufficient to render the mind incapable of cool reflection. * * * * * *”

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