Mason v. Balkcom’s Empirical Analysis
669 F.2d 222 · 1982
Citation profile
69 federal appellate · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 90 later decisions — most recently July 2016 · most notably United States of America v. Ignasio Maldenaldo Sanchez (2001), Hance v. Zant (1983)
69 federal appellate · 1 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 Chapman v. State of California · In the Matter of Samuel Winship · Sandstrom v. Montana · Mullaney v. Wilbur · Harrington v. California
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 90 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Apparently, the district court believed that by raising self-defense the defendant admitted having the intent to kill. This analysis is too broad. When claiming self-defense, one does not necessarily admit intent to kill, but rather admits that the killing occurred. As the petitioner points out in his brief, one can shoot to kill in self-defense, shoot to wound in self-defense, shoot to frighten in self-defense, or even shoot reactively in self-defense with no specific purpose. The mere raising of self-defense clearly does not establish that the defendant had the intent to kill.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(a) A person commits the offense of murder when he unlawfully and with malice aforethought, either express or implied, causes the death of another human being. (b) Express malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take the life of another human being which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof. Malice shall be implied where no considerable provocation appears, and where all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Lamb v. Jernigan · Smith v. Zant“I charge you that the law presumes that a person intends to accomplish the natural and probable consequences of his conduct and where a person uses a deadly weapon in the manner in which such weapons are ordinarily employed to produce death, thereby causing the death of a human being, the law presumes an intention to kill.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Baker v. Montgomery · Potts v. Zant
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.