Thompson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

34 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. “[I]t is the rule that reputation evidence concerning the deceased’s violent character or prior specific acts of violence committed by him are admissible as they tend to explain the deceased’s conduct; because this evidence is probative of ‘who was in fact the aggressor’ in the fray (as opposed to ‘what the defendant thought’), the defendant need not show his own awareness of it at the time of the offense, but like all evidence, it must be established by admissible evidence at trial.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Ceasar v. State · Gonzales v. State

2. ““In a homicide case, when there is evidence of some act of aggression on the part of the deceased which is sufficient to raise an issue as to whether the defendant justifiably caused the death in self-defense, evidence of both the general reputation of the deceased for being of violent or dangerous character, and prior specific acts of violent misconduct committed by the deceased which illustrate his violent character, are generally rendered admissible.” (citations and footnotes omitted)”

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

3. “failed to establish the prior convictions, involved acts of violence which would explain the [victim’s] ambiguously aggressive conduct toward [the defendant] at the time of the offense.” Thompson, 659 S.W.2d at 655 . .Appellant argues that Diles’s intent in grabbing appellant was ambiguous. He asserts:”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rodney Wayne Allen v. State