Conner v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 24 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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “the defendant has committed another murder, at any time, regardless of whether the defendant has been convicted of that other murder.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Ben-Yisrayl v. State · Williams v. State

2. “[Djuring the early morning hours of January 26, 1988, Conner, Tony Moore, Bruce Voge, and Steve Wentland were drinking in Tony Moore’s house. Bruce Voge remained at the house while Conner, Moore, and Wentland went for a drive in Wentland’s automobile. Went-land drove with Moore in the passenger seat and Conner in the back. During the drive, an argument began which resulted in Moore striking Wentland with Conner’s knife, causing Wentland to abandon the car and run. Conner, armed with the knife, pursued Wentland on foot while Moore took over the driving of the car and ran Wentland down. While Wentland was down, Conner struck him several times with his fists and stabbed him multiple times with the knife, killing him. Conner and Moore drove from the scene and went to City Enterprises, Conner’s place of employment. There, they woke up Conner’s employer and were allowed access to the warehouse area. They began arguing about what had occurred and what future course of action to take and, during the argument, Conner, who had obtained possession of his sawed-off shotgun, shot and killed Moore. The shotgun blasts awakened Conner’s employer who confronted Conner as he left the warehouse area. Conner told his employer that he “had to off Tony.” Conner left the warehouse and returned to Tony Moore’s house where he shot and killed Bruce Voge while Voge was lying on the couch in the living room. Following these three killings, Conner enlisted the help of various friends to dispose of Moore’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 259 F. Supp. 2d 741 - Conner v. Anderson

3. “In reviewing the record of the penalty phase of the trial as well as the court’s sentencing order, we hold that the trial court properly considered both aggravating and mitigating circumstances and properly imposed the death penalty in accordance with the Indiana act.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 259 F. Supp. 2d 741 - Conner v. Anderson