Leuch v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

51 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 51 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[W]e think that where an offense is against only property, involving no physical threats or violence; where it is the offender’s first felony conviction; and where there is no background of unsuccessful paroles or probations which would indicate that probation is unsuitable to protect the public, to deter the offender, and to further his rehabilitative progress, probation, coupled with restitution, is the appropriate sentence unless other factors militate against it. Naturally, this is not to be construed as a hard and fast rule. [Footnotes omitted.]”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hall v. State · Nickolas v. State

2. ““Affirmative reasons to the contrary” should be found on the basis of showing that probation, or some other alternative to incarceration, is inadequate to serve one or more of the Chaney criteria. The ABA Standards list the following legitimate reasons for the selection of total confinement: (i) Confinement is necessary in order to protect the public from further criminal activity by the defendant; or (ii) The defendant is in need of correctional treatment which can most effectively be provided if he is placed in total confinement; or (iii) It would unduly depreciate the seriousness of the offense to impose a sentence other than total confinement. ABA Standards Relating to Sentencing Alternatives and Procedures § 2.5(c) (Approved Draft 1968). The Standards go on to specify that “[o]n the other hand, community hostility to the defendant is not a legitimate basis for imposing a sentence of total confinement.” Id. We read these considerations as corresponding to the Chaney criteria of isolation, rehabilitation, and community condemnation. We also think that a finding that a non-custodial sentence would fail to deter the defendant and/or others to the requisite degree, the other factors in the Chaney list, justifies a sentence of incarceration. These “affirmative reasons to the contrary” should have some basis in the record.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Brinkley · Hall v. State

3. “In reviewing a sentence, a portion of which is suspended, the period of suspension as well as the period of incarceration must be weighed. It would ... be incorrect to consider suspended time as a nugatory or insignificant sanction.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Graybill · McManners v. State