Rucker v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1979
Citation profile
34 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 41 later decisions — most recently December 2010 · most notably Muniz v. State (1993), Bush v. State (1982)
34 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Burks v. United States · Greene v. Massey · Coker v. Georgia · Albrecht v. State · Seaton v. State
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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"(2) By acts, words or deeds places the victim in fear of death, serious bodily injury, or kidnapping to be imminently inflicted on anyone; ..."”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Holder v. State · Lindsey v. State“(a) A person commits an offense if he commits rape as defined in Section 21.02 of this code or rape of a child as defined in Section 21.09 of this code and he: (1) causes serious bodily injury or attempts to cause death to the victim or another in the course of the same criminal episode; or (2) compels submission to the rape by threat of death, serious bodily injury, or kidnapping to be imminently inflicted on anyone.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Buckley v. State · Carter v. State“In the 1979 case of Rucker vs. State the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the aggravated rape conviction of defendant Rucker. The Court held that although the evidence was sufficient to prove simple rape, it was not sufficient to prove the element of aggravation. The Court found that no express verbal threat was made to compel submission to the rape, no weapon was used, and though defendant struck complainant with his fist and though she testified that she was in fear for her life, no serious bodily injuries, as that term is defined by statute, were inflicted. The victim’s injuries consisted of black and swollen eyes, a swollen face, cuts inside her lip, bruised chest and breast, scratched and abraded buttocks and legs, and a rash from poison ivy, but she suffered no concussion, no broken bones, no internal injury, or scars, no serious permanent disfigurement, and no protracted loss or impairment of any part of her body. The Court stated that if a conviction for aggravated rape was to he upheld in cases such as this, the legislature would need to make statutory changes in the Penal Code. ****** The bill proposes to amend Section 21.-02 (aggravated rape) and Section 21.05 (aggravated sexual abuse) of the Texas Penal Code by providing language which would allow acts such as the above described to be prosecuted and upheld as aggravated rape.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Richardson v. State
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.