People v. Noble’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 32 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. “[T]he requirement of “knowingly” in the statutory definition of child abuse does not refer to the actor’s awareness that his conduct is practically certain to cause the proscribed result. Instead, “knowingly” refers to the actor’s general awareness of the abusive nature of his conduct in relation to the child or his awareness of the circumstances in which he commits an act against the well-being of the child. Although this distinction between awareness of one’s conduct or circumstance, on the one hand, and an awareness of the result of one’s conduct, on the other, at times may be a subtle one, it is a distinction recognized by the Colorado Criminal Code itself.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. People v. Thompson · People v. District Court of Colorado's Seventeenth Judicial District

2. ““(I) When a person acts knowingly, except as to paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section, and the child abuse results in death to the child, it is a class 2 felony. (II) When a person acts recklessly or with criminal negligence and the child abuse results in death to the child, it is a class 3 felony. (III) When a person acts knowingly, except as to paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section, and the child abuse results in serious bodily injury to the child, it is a class 3 felony. (IV) When a person acts recklessly or with criminal negligence and the child abuse results in serious bodily injury to the child, it is a class 4 felony. (V) When a person acts knowingly or recklessly, except as to paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section, and the child abuse results in any injury other than serious bodily injury to the child, it is a class 1 misdemeanor. (VI) When a person acts with criminal negligence and the child abuse results in any injury other than serious bodily injury to the child, it is a class 2 misdemean- or.” Section 18-6-401(7)(a), C.R.S. (1984 Cum.Supp.).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. People v. Thompson

3. ““[A] person may negligently cause or permit a child to be placed in a situation so debilitating to the child’s physical well-being that a reasonable juror, looking at the effect of the offender’s conduct on the child, would consider it torture or cruel punishment. The term ‘negligently’ is not irreconcilably at odds with ‘tortured’ and ‘cruelly punished’, and the statutory definition of child abuse is sufficiently particular as to furnish adequate notice to potential wrongdoers of the proscribed conduct and to protect against discriminatory enforcement [citations omitted].””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. People v. Jennings