Williams v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Criminal trespass, as denounced in Sec. 30.05 of the Penal Code relates to ‘property’ or ‘a building1 and is quite foreign to the offense charged against appellant, the unauthorized use of a vehicle as denounced in Sec. 31.07(a) of the code. One statute relates to real property, land and buildings, while the other relates to chattels— boats, airplanes, or motor-propelled vehicles.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Woodfox v. State · Cadieux v. State

2. “It has long been the rule in this State that in felony cases it is necessary to give instructions which are applicable to every legitimate deduction form the facts. Literally dozens of cases are cited in 12A Tex.Digest, Criminal Law, Key No. 770(2) (1961). The rule and supporting authorities were set out in detail in Gauthier v. State . But the rule is not applicable here. In Bonner v. State , this Court reversed a conviction upon similar facts; but the distinction there is that the defendant testified that he did not know the car was stolen and that he had been given the car to use by his friend James. This Court held that this was sufficient to raise the defensive issue and to require the court to charge the jury thereon.”

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