65 So. 2d 77 - North v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

55 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 58 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"It is apparent that we have not foreclosed, under appropriate circumstances, the invocation of Fla. Stat. § 924.33 , F.S.A., which reads: "`No judgment shall be reversed unless the appellate court is of the opinion, after an examination of all the appeal papers, that error was committed that injuriously affected the substantial rights of the appellant. It shall not be presumed that error injuriously affected the substantial rights of the appellant.' "In the case sub judice, the trial judge did instruct the jury on the lesser included crime of assault with intent to commit rape, and the jury had before it an opportunity to convict the petitioners thereunder. This the jury did not do, but chose to convict petitioners under the greater charge of rape, obviously because the jury had before it overwhelming evidence of force and repeated penetration with prosecutrix, together with evidence of her utmost resistance. The record and transcript of this trial demonstrates that great force was used upon the prosecutrix and that she was raped repeatedly against her will and that throughout she fought and resisted to the best of her ability. "We hesitate to invoke the harmless error statute quoted above in a case of this magnitude, but we have determined that the petitioners received a fair trial and justice dictates an affirmance rather than a reversal. As a matter of common sense and logic, if the jury did not convict the petitioners of assault with intent to commit rape, the same jury ”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Dobbert v. State · 112 So. 2d 380 - Pait v. State

2. “"Because of the multiplicity, nature and distribution of various wounds on this body, I concluded that they were most consistent with the person having been assaulted, principally by blunt force, and that the method of assault is most consistent with strangulation." Id. at 87 .”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 483 So. 2d 1383 - Kruse v. State · 324 So. 2d 662 - Farley v. State

3. “"If harmless error did not influence the jury in determining the guilt of the appellant, then it could not influence it in recommending mercy."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 112 So. 2d 380 - Pait v. State