Sutton v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The fundamental rule of statutory construction, to which all others are subordinate, is that the purpose and intent of the legislature governs when that intent can be ascertained from the statute. City of Salina v. Jaggers, 228 Kan. 155, 169 , 612 P.2d 618 (1980); Johnson v. McArthur, 226 Kan. 128, 135 , 596 P.2d 148 (1979); State v. Dumler, 221 Kan. 386, 389 , 559 P.2d 798 (1977). When a statute is plain and unambiguous, this court must give effect to the intention of the legislature as expressed rather than determine what the law should or should not be. State v. Chance, 4 Kan. App. 2d 283, 287, 604 P.2d 756 (1980). Additionally, criminal statutes must be strictly construed against the State and in favor of the defendant. State v. Stuart & Jones, 223 Kan. 600, 607 , 575 P.2d 559 (1978). “A synthesis of the foregoing rules leads us inevitably to our conclusion. First, the question of whether attempted murder should be covered by K.S.A. 1977 Supp. 21-4618 is not before us. Our task is only to determine whether the statute does in fact apply to the crime involved in the case at bar. We hold K.S.A. 1977 Supp. 21-4618 is plain and unambiguous. The intent of the legislature expressed therein is for that statute to apply only to article 34 crimes. Attempted murder is simply not an article 34 crime. Therefore, we hold K.S.A. 1977 Supp. 21-4618 was not applicable to attempts. Appellant’s sentence is so modified.” 6 Kan. App. 2d at 832 .”

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