Scheckel v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1993
Citation profile
27 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently December 2010 · most notably Mitchem v. State (1997), Widener v. State (1995)
27 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 Hammons v. State · Page v. State · Jones v. State · Henderson v. State · Day 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In the present case, evidence presented in support of mitigating cireumstances was substantial. During the sentencing hearing, fourteen persons, including members of the defendant's family, friends, a coworker, and a pastor portrayed the defendant as a person with positive character traits: loving, trusted, caring, helpful, responsible, sensitive, not mean-natured, and a good person. The defendant had been employed at a department store and previously served as an orderly at a hospital. He had been a volunteer teacher in a community children's tumbling program, as well as assisting with a church activity. At the time the crime was committed, he had been accepted to the School of Nursing at Indiana University. The defendant was described as not being aggressive or threatening and not in need of long-term incarceration. His father was an alcoholic, a cireumstance which affected the defendant and his entire family. The defendant was portrayed as a good worker with much promise. Although experiencing drinking problems, he was direct in facing the consequences. Testimony also indicated that the defendant's crime was not in keeping with his character. . Evidence was also presented that the defendant had been sexually molested as a child, and two years before his arrest for murder, he was involved in an automobile accident in which a young mother of two was killed. He received no counseling for either event.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Scheckel v. State“Tr. at 460-61 (emphasis supplied). It was equally clear that it was upon this jury determination that the trial court focused in sentencing Johnson, not that he was likely to commit another crime. Accordingly, I conclude that the trial court erroneously considered prior arrests and pending investigations as part of Johnson's criminal record and on that basis, at least in part, imposed the enhanced sentence. My conclusion is premised upon the oft-stated principle that mere "arrest[s] [and/or investigations] ... may not be properly considered as evidence of criminal history”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Johnson v. State“The statement of reasons should contain three elements: 1) identification of all significant mitigating and aggravating circumstances found, 2) specific facts and reasons which lead the court to find the existence of each such circumstance, and 3) articulation demonstrating that the mitigating and aggravating circumstances have been evaluated and balanced in determination of the sentence.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Angleton 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.