State v. Hendricks’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

31 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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘The act intended to be influenced must be connected with one’s official or public duty, although the duty may possibly arise only in the future, but if the act is associated with official duty, it is immaterial whether the bribed person has, or has not, authority to do that specific thing, since the essence of the crime is the fact that he agreed to do it under color of office.’ ””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 5 Ariz. App. 436 - State v. Bowling · State v. Martin

2. “great weight of authority, [that] the giving, receiving of money, etc., for the purpose of influencing official conduct is not deprived of its criminal character by the fact that the action contemplated is not within the officer’s jurisdiction. If he acts in his official capacity — and by this term is meant the doing of such acts as properly belong to the office and are intended by the officer to be official — the offense is complete. The validity or invalidity of the act to be done, or whether the officer ... had or had not jurisdiction, is generally immaterial * * *. 8 Am.Jur., Bribery, sees. 14, 15. “The act intended to be influenced must be connected with one’s official or public duty, ... but if the act is associated with official duty, it is immaterial whether the bribed person has, or has not, authority to do that specific thing, since the essence of the crime is the fact that he agreed to do it under color of office.” [citations omitted].”

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

3. “As to defendant’s proposition of law that there can be no bribery of an officer outside the scope of his official duty, we have no quarrel. But it must be fairly construed. The reason for making it an offense to bribe a public officer is because of its tendency to pervert justice. Therefore, although there is a definite split of authority, the numerical weight of decisions, the text writers, and what we believe to be the best-reasoned opinions support the proposition that if the matter toward which the attempted bribe is directed has an actual relation to the officer’s official duties it is immaterial that the law may be silent upon the officer’s power to act or failure to act in the particular matter at hand.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 63 Md. App. 324 - Richardson v. State