Smith v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “If the Barker Case be followed, this case must be reversed ... [W]hile that case is persuasive and we are reluctant to give a different construction to this section of the statute, we feel constrained to do so. The better grammatical construction and the more common sense interpretation is found in the view that ... the conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘or’ connect two co-ordinate clauses, and the first part of the ... subdivision means, ‘Homicide is manslaughter in the first degree * * * when perpetrated without a design to effect death and in a heat of passion but in a cruel and unusual manner,’ and the second part means, ‘Homicide is manslaughter in the first degree * * * when perpetrated without a design to effect death by means of a dangerous weapon....’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. State

2. “That said defendant, ... did unlawfully, wilfully and feloniously without a premeditated design to effect death, did effect the death of one Karen Sue Camron in a cruel and unusual manner and while the said defendant was in the heat of passion, in manner and form as follows, to wit: striking Karen Sue Camron about the head, arms, hands and shoulder with a blunt instrument being a sawed off .410 gauge shotgun approximately 16 inches in length and made of metal and wood, and said defendant did then and there and thereby inflict certain mortal wounds in and upon the body of the said Karen Sue Camron, from which mortal wounds the said Karen Sue Camron did then and there languish and die ... (O.R. 1)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Camron v. State