State v. Dickson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is thus evident that if appellant’s lawyer, at the time of the prosecutor’s objection was intending to argue to the jury that a killing during an attempted rape would constitute “felony-murder,” such an argument would have been outside of the instruction. While counsel may argue facts as they pertain to the law declared in the instructions of the court, it is improper for counsel to argue questions of law not within the issues or inconsistent with the instructions of the court, or to present false issues. Whether appellant, on the evidence before the jury, was guilty of “felony-murder” was not an issue for the jury to decide.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Leaks v. State