683 So. 2d 853 - State v. Compton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “.... This Court will not uphold a trial judge's discretion to deviate from a legislatively mandated minimum sentence without a record that contains a searching inquiry into and a meaningful assessment of exceptional facts and circumstances that justify the exercise of judicial discretion in a particular case. Some significant facts and circumstances in this context include family history, prior criminal conduct in light of whether it was violent or nonviolent and whether it was similar or dissimilar to the conviction for which the defendant is being sentenced, other aggravating and mitigating circumstances such as those provided in the Code of Criminal Procedure article 894.1, and the impact of the crimes upon the victims. A record that reflects that a sentence was imposed after careful consideration of a particular defendant and the facts of the exceptional case in light of such concerns as these will support a trial judge's discretion under Dorthey to depart from a minimum sentence mandated by the Habitual Offender Law.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 693 So. 2d 246 - State v. Johnson · 695 So. 2d 1121 - State v. Lacoste

2. “The court is deviating from the mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment. Although the defendant, in my opinion, has a significant criminal history and I am—the rape conviction, in my opinion, is the one that is of most concern to me in May of 1983. I understand that it occurred in Jefferson Parish. I also understand he received a two-year sentence for pleading guilty to a charge of forcible rape ... The jury finds him guilty of possession of cocaine in a jury trial in this court. I believe that I have to take into account the fact that the jury did come back and make a lesser finding, that they did not find him guilty of possession with the intent to distribute cocaine. But that they made a lesser finding of possession of cocaine. I also note for the record the State informs me that other than those three convictions I have already listed Mr. Lee has a prior conviction for possession of PCP as well as a possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Nonetheless, with five previous convictions—this is his sixth felony conviction—this conviction is for the offense of possession of cocaine. I again note that it is what I consider to be a large number of rocks, 17 pieces. I still, however, feel that to order him to be sentenced for the rest of his natural life, in my opinion, would be an excessive sentence that I feel that it would make no measurable contribution to the acceptable goals of punishment or that the sentence would amount, in my opinion, to nothing more than a ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 699 So. 2d 461 - State v. Lee