Mathis v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 56 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 60 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “On December 15, 1998, at approximately 8:00 or 8:30 a.m., Esmerelda Lester and her 15-year old daughter Melanie Almaguer went to Chris Lentsch’s home [a known drug house]. Lentsch rented rooms to Travis Brown and Daniel Hibbard. Brown and appellant were in Brown’s room. While Lester, Mmaguer and Hibbard sat in Lentsch’s room, Lentsch went into the kitchen. Shortly thereafter, Lentsch heard gunshots from Brown’s room and turned to see appellant exiting the room with a gun in his hand. Appellant claimed that Brown had just shot himself. Lentsch told appellant to put the gun down, but appellant ordered Lentsch and the other three back into Lentsch’s room where he calmly walked up to Mmaguer and shot her in the head, leaving her alive, but paralyzed from the neck down. Appellant then shot Hibbard in the head, causing his death. Appellant finally pointed the gun at Lester, whereupon he discovered that he was out of bullets. Appellant thereafter rummaged through the house, set fire to Brown’s room, threatened Lester and Lentsch, and finally left in Brown’s car. The police identified appellant as the killer and went to arrest him. Upon being arrested, appellant became violent. Officers discovered that appellant had told his father to lie for him and had persuaded his girlfriend to give him an alibi, which she maintained until confronted by the police. A fellow inmate testified that appellant showed no remorse for the shootings and stated that he wished he had killed them all. Appell”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Mathis v. Dretke

2. “Unlike in [previous cases], in which the evidence involved testimony regarding both the victim’s good qualities and the effect that her death had on family members, the testimony in the present case did not involve testimony about how third persons were affected by the crime, nor was there any discussion about the character of the victim. [The nurse]’s testimony focused solely on the medical procedures involved in the care of [the victim]. Appellant’s characterization of [the nurse]’s testimony as victim impact evidence is incorrect.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Roberts v. Thaler

3. “To preserve error on erroneously denied challenges for cause, an appellant must demonstrate that he asserted a clear and specific challenge for cause, that he used a peremptory challenge on the complained-of venireperson, that all of his peremptory challenges were exhausted, that his request for additional strikes was denied, and that an objectionable juror sat on the jury.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Robert Dewayne Gant, Sr. v. State