Bumpus v. Gunter’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 federal appellate · 8 district · 13 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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he decade of the 1980’s will continue to see a heightened awareness of the dangers lurking in some of the hoary, oft-repeated illustrations used up through the 60’s and early 70’s to breathe life into the reasonable doubt standard. Such awareness may lead to generally stricter requirements as to what is acceptable and may even result in more helpful charges —although the latter is perhaps debatable if judges are driven to seek safety in eschewing all illustrations and attempts at explanation.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Smith v. Butler · 29 F. Supp. 2d 11 - Simpson v. Matesanz

2. “(a) The trial court’s equation of moral certainty and reasonable doubt, and a description of moral certainty as: “ ‘being satisfied in your minds and your consciences with the same degree of satisfaction that you would look for when you took action in the major affairs of your life.’ ” Id. at 912 . (b) The use of a specific example to illustrate “moral certainty”: “ ‘I am going to pose to you what I think would be a major affair of your life. ‘If you were a young man with a growing family and it was determined that you had a definite deficiency in your heart valve, your surgeon might well advise you that if you had corrective surgery, the heart valve deficiency could be cured and you would live a normal and useful and healthy life. ‘He might also advise you that the operation was attendant with great risk, you might not survive the operation, and he also might advise you that if you don’t have the operation, you might die at any time, you may live a few years, and you may live a normal life. ‘In that situation, you have to make a judgment in the interests of your own health, in the interests of your family and your responsibilities to them. I would say that was a major affair in your private lives. ‘[You would have] to weigh all the evidence on both sides and then when it has been concluded make a judgment, either to have the operation or not to have it. ‘If you are satisfied to a moral certainty that having weighed and evaluated everything that can be considered on the subje”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Smith v. Butler

3. “[A] single instruction to a jury may not be judged in artificial isolation, but must be viewed in the context of the overall charge. While this does not mean that an instruction by itself may never rise to the level of constitutional error, it does recognize that a judgment of conviction is commonly the culmination of a trial which includes testimony of witnesses, argument of counsel, receipt of exhibits in evidence, and instruction of the jury by the judge. Thus not only is the challenged instruction but one of many such instructions, but the process of instruction itself is but one of several components of the trial which may result in the judgment of conviction.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Rogers v. Carver