Edwards v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

38 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 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““If the act done was an unlawful act, and the doing of it was directly perilous to human life, and so known to the wrongdoer, that then there is implied such a high degree of conscious and willful recklessness as to amount to that malignity of heart'constituting malice. The result may not have been intended, yet the deliberate and conscious doing of an act, the probable consequence of which was death, amounts to murder at common law. ’ ’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Shiflet v. State

2. ““Criminal intent is supplied by the very doing of an unlawful act which is malum in se and it is not necessary to show that death was the natural and proximate result of such act.” “Willfully becoming intoxicated, or partly so, and driving automobile while in such condition with knowledge that driving in such condition is perilous to human life constitutes murder in the second degree.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Staggs v. State

3. ““A homicide of this character, generally speaking, is either involuntary manslaughter, Keller v. State, 155 Tenn. 633 , 299 S.W. 803 , 59 A.L.R. 685 , or second degree murder, Owen v. State, 188 Tenn. 459 , 221 S.W.2d 515 , and Rogers v. State, 196 Tenn. 263 , 265 S.W.2d 559 , dependent upon the facts of each particular case.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Shadden v. State