State v. Preston’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 federal appellate · 72 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 90 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In following the mandate of [ Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420 , 100 S.Ct. 1759 , 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980),] to establish "clear and objective standards" as to what types of murders constitute "depravity of mind," this Court, while not expressly adopting a precise formula, has noted the following factors to be considered in finding "depravity of mind": mental state of defendant, infliction of physical or psychological torture upon the victim as when victim has a substantial period of time before death to anticipate and reflect upon it; brutality of defendant's conduct; mutilation of the body after death; absence of any substantive motive; absence of defendant's remorse and the nature of the crime.”

   9 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mathenia v. Delo · State v. Sloan

2. “(1) Whether the murder of [each victim] was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture or depravity of mind; (2) Whether the murder of [each victim] was committed by the defendant for the purpose of preventing [each] from testifying in a judicial proceeding.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Feltrop · State v. Williams

3. “depravity of mind ... outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman,”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Feltrop · Feltrop v. Delo