63 Ohio App. 3d 304 - State v. Scott’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

29 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Scott] was the sixth of eleven children whose father and mother were frequently absent and who separated when [Scott] was fourteen. His parents and his siblings abused alcohol and other drugs and lived in poverty so severe that sometimes there was no heat, and an aunt, a neighbor or governmental agency supplied food. Money was gambled away by his father. Extreme violence between the parents and against the children was routine. The father stabbed the mother. [Scott] and his siblings were tied to chairs and beaten. The mother’s boyfriend also beat the children. A brother tried to intervene in a fight between the mother and a boyfriend and was killed. A sister was shot to death. A brother is a quadriplegic from a gunshot wound from his brother-in-law. A sister was acquitted of murder in the shooting of a brother-in-law. Nevertheless there was a [family] closeness particularly on the part of [Scott] who tried to help his sisters (who were involved in abusive relationships and using drugs) and [who] tried to reunite estranged family members. He gave the sisters money and tried to persuade his siblings to get educated and limit, their families. When he was young he attempted to protect his mother from his father’s physical abuse. When he was older he tried to help children in the neighborhood and attempted to “read books and study the law.” When he had steady employment he provided for his girlfriend and her children. He was looking for a job at the time of the offense and was a ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 58 F. Supp. 2d 767 - Scott v. Anderson

2. “The indictment contained two specifications. The first was an aggravating circumstance that must be proven before the death penalty may be imposed. The second was a gun specification. Appellant contended that the record reveals repeated references to aggravating circumstances (in the plural) and thus the jury believed that both were aggravating circumstances. This issue could have been determined without resort to evidence dehors the record and res judicata was a proper grounds for dismissal.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 58 F. Supp. 2d 767 - Scott v. Anderson

3. “[T]he failure to present mitigation evidence could not have been determined on direct appeal because the evidence of the lack of an effort to contact witnesses and the availability of mitigation evidence was not present until the affidavits were made a part of the petition.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Williams v. Anderson