Ex Parte Simmons’s Empirical Analysis
1994
Citation profile
10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently May 2019
10 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 Morris v. State · Martin v. State · 455 So. 2d 137 - Free v. State · 413 So. 2d 1169 - Northington v. State · 463 So. 2d 170 - Ex Parte Weems
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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"[This section] requires the prosecution to prove conduct that manifests an extreme indifference to human life and not to the life of any particular person. The purpose of § 13A-6-2(a)(2) is to embrace those homicides caused by such acts as shooting a firearm into a crowd, throwing a timber from a roof onto a crowded street, or driving an automobile in a grossly wanton manner. See Northington v. State, 413 So.2d 1169 (Ala.Cr.App.1981), writ quashed, 413 So.2d 1172 (Ala.1982). This section was written in an attempt to define a degree of recklessness `that cannot be fairly distinguished from homicides committed purposely or knowingly.' Model Penal Code and Commentaries, § 210.02, comment 4 (1980), as quoted in Ex parte Weems, 463 So.2d 170, 172 (Ala.1984). Under the concept of reckless murder, the actor perceives a substantial and unjustified risk, but consciously disregards the risk of death."”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. DDA v. State · D.D.A. v. State“Accomplice liability does not require that the accomplice intend for the principal to act in a reckless manner. Rather, accomplice liability requires only that the accomplice intend to promote or to assist the principal, having knowledge that the principal is engaging in, or is about to engage in, criminal conduct. See [Alabama Statute] § 13A-2-23, Committee Comments. The mental state required for complicity is the intent to aid the principal in the criminal act or conduct, not the intent of the principal that death occur either intentionally or recklessly. In other words, for a person to be guilty of reckless murder as an accomplice, he need not know or decide whether the principal will act intentionally or recklessly; rather, the accomplice need only have knowledge that the principal is engaging in reckless conduct and intentionally assist or encourage that conduct with the intent to promote or facilitate its commission.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"Simmons contends that the State presented insufficient evidence to support a conviction of reckless murder. Specifically, he contends that the evidence showed that the shots fired were fired with the intention to kill a specific individual only and were not directed at human life in general. . . . "`Reckless murder' or, as it is sometimes called, `universal malice murder' or `depraved heart murder,' requires the prosecution to prove conduct that manifests an `extreme indifference to human life,' any human life. As noted above, Simmons contends that this section is not applicable to the present situation because, he says, the intended victim was a particular person. We disagree. "The fact that the families of Simmons and Peterson had been involved in an altercation the night before the child was killed is not in dispute. There was testimony that Peterson had fired shots at Simmons and at some of Simmons's family before the exchange of gunfire in which the child was killed. However, the evidence was that Simmons, as well as several others, was shooting firearms *Page 1032 indiscriminately in the general direction of the car in which the child was riding. This spraying of bullets occurred on a public street in a residential neighborhood in the middle of the day. That the one who fired the fatal shot may have intended to kill a particular person does not take this fact situation out of the scope or concept of reckless murder. Spraying gunfire openly on a public street is reckles”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.