Dawson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 33 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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Cases Decided Under 11 Del.C. § 4209 As Amended in 1991 by 68 Del.Laws Ch. 189 Case Name: Meri-Ya C. Baker Case No.: IN90-12-1039,1040 County: New Castle Sentence: Life Imprisonment Case Name: James B. Clark, Jr. Case No.: IN94-06-0543 through 0548 County: New Castle Sentence: Death Case Name: Charles M. Cohen Case No.: IN90-02-0474 thru 0477 County: New Castle Sentence: Life Imprisonment Case Name: David F. Dawson Case No.: IK86-0024; IK87-01-0841; 0843, 0845 County: New Castle (venue changed) Sentence: Death Case Name: Curtis Demby Case No.: IN94-12-1518 and 1519 County: New Castle Sentence: Life Imprisonment — Postcon-viction Appeal Pending Case Name: Byron S. Dickerson Case No.: IN90-12-1041,1042 County: New Castle Sentence: Life Imprisonment Case Name: Cornelius E. Ferguson Case No.: IN91-10-0576, 0578 thru 0581 County: New Castle Sentence: Death Case Name: Robert A. Gattis Case No.: IN90-05-1017 thru 1019, 1106, 1107 County: New Castle Sentence: Death — Postconviction Appeal Pending Case Name: Arthur Govan Case No.: 92-01-0166 County: New Castle Sentence: Life Imprisonment Case Name: Robert W. Jackson, III Case No.: IN-92-04-1222 thru 1227; IN92-04-1348 and 1349 County: New Castle Sentence: Death — Automatic Appeal Pending Case Name: David J. Lawrie Case No.: IK92-08-0179 thru 0185; IK92-09-0148 and 0149 County: Kent Sentence: Death Case Name: Frank W. Moore, Jr. Case No.: 92-09-0001, 0002,1001, 2001, 3001 County: Sussex Sentence: Life Imprisonment Case Name: Jack F. Ou”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Jackson v. State

2. “(2) The Supreme Court shall limit its review under this section to the recommendation on and imposition of the penalty of death and shall determine: a. Whether, considering the totality of evidence in aggravation and mitigation which bears upon the particular circumstances or details of the offense and the character and propensities of the offender, the death penalty was either arbitrarily or capriciously imposed or recommended, or disproportionate to the penalty recommended or imposed in similar cases arising under this section. b. Whether the evidence supports the jury’s or judge’s finding of a statutory aggravating circumstance as enumerated in subsection (e) of this section and, where applicable, § 636(a)(2)-(7) of this title.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Pennell v. State

3. “individual jurors bring to their deliberations “qualities of human nature and varieties of human experience, the range of which is unknown and perhaps unknowable.” The capital sentencing decision requires the individual jurors to focus their collective judgment on the unique characteristics of a particular criminal defendant. It is not surprising that such collective judgments often are difficult to explain. But the inherent lack of predictability of jury decisions does not justify their condemnation. On the contrary, it is the jury’s function to make the difficult and uniquely human judgments that defy codification and that “buil[d] discretion, equity, and flexibility into a legal system.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Pennell v. State