State v. McDonald’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
10 federal appellate · 121 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 136 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2010 · most notably State v. Antwine (1987), McDonald v. Missouri (1985)
10 federal appellate · 121 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Gregg v. Georgia · Godfrey v. Georgia · California v. Ramos · Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe · Sullivan v. United States
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 136 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Defendants argue that § 848(n)(7) is intended to apply only to either "murder for hire . . . or, for example, to gain an inheritance or life insurance proceeds". . . . They argue that the government's evidence will at best show that the . . . homicide was committed in the course of a robbery, and that the intent with which the murder is carried out has to be pecuniary gain over and above robbery. The court finds CT Page 17022 that defendants' interpretation is an unreasonably restrictive reading which does not comport with the structure and plain language of the statute. The Court first notes that § 848(n)(7) has two prongs: that the offense was committed "as consideration for the receipt," or "in expectation of the receipt" of something of pecuniary value. Defendants' view seems correct that the first prong's use of the "as consideration for" language of contract contemplates murder-for-hire. For this Court to transport that restriction to the second, "in expectation of the receipt" prong, however, would render the clause mere surplusage. Defendants also point to the statutory structure and argue that since this factor follows § 848(n)(6) ("The defendant procured the commission of the offense by payment, or promise of payment, of anything of pecuniary value") . . . Congress intended § 848(n)(7) to identify the flip-side of procuring a murder-for-hire. It is enough to say that a finding that the first clause does indeed comprehend the other half of murder ”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“(1) Whether the sentence of death was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice, or any other arbitrary factor; (2) Whether the evidence supports the jury’s or judge’s finding of a statutory aggravating circumstance as enumerated in subsection 2 of section 565.032 and any other circumstance found; (3) Whether the sentence of death is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the crime, the strength of the evidence and the defendant.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Sidebottom“In arriving at this conclusion we have reviewed the cases decided since the enactment of our current capital murder statute . . . where the death sentences were affirmed, one case which reversed the death sentence because of its disproportionality, and capital cases in which the choice of death or life imprisonment without possibility of parole for fifty years was submitted to the jury.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Deck
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.