Boutwell v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate · 58 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 69 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “We explained the meaning of this aggravating circumstance in Eddings v. State, 616 P.2d 1159 (Okl.Cr.1980), rev’d on other grounds, 455 U.S. 104 , 102 S.Ct. 869 , 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982), modified, 688 P.2d 342 (Okl.Cr.1984). In Eddings we adopted the definition given to a similar aggravating circumstance by the Florida Supreme Court in State v. Dixon, 283 So.2d 1 (Fla.1973): [W]e feel that the meaning of such terms is a matter of common knowledge, so that an ordinary man would not have to guess at what was intended. It is our interpretation that heinous means extremely wicked or shockingly evil; that atrocious means outrageously wicked and vile; and that cruel means designed to inflict a high degree of pain with utter indifference to, or even enjoyment of, the suffering of others. What is intended to be included are those capital crimes where the actual commission of the capital felony was accomplished by such additional acts as to set the crime apart from the norm of capital felonies the conscienceless or pitiless crime, which is unnecessarily torturous to the victim. 616 P.2d at 1167-68 . We have consistently adhered to this definition of “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.” See Stafford v. State, 669 P.2d 285, 299 (Okl.Cr.1983); Ake v. State, 663 P.2d at 11; Jones v. State, 648 P.2d 1251, 1259 (Okl.Cr.1982). ****** Even if we accepted appellant’s claim [that the victim did not suffer], Eddings and subsequent cases make clear that suffering of the victim is not the major”

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

2. “In this case the killing was merciless. The robbers planned well in advance to take the victim's life. Even more abhorrent and indicative of cold pitilessness is the fact that the appellant and the victim knew each other.”

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

3. “[C]onsidering ... the overwhelming evidence against the accused, these [photographs of the victim taken while alive] would not have had the tendency to unduly prejudice the jury.”

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