704 So. 2d 1375 - Pooler v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 13 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[F]ear, emotional strain, and terror of the victim during the events leading up to the murder may be considered in determining whether [the HAC] aggravator is satisfied....”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Rimmer v. State · 980 So. 2d 460 - Pooler v. State

2. “Leroy Pooler was convicted of first-degree murder for the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend, Kim Wright Brown. He also was convicted of burglary and attempted first-degree murder with a firearm. The facts supporting these convictions are as follows. On January 28, 1995, Carolyn Glass, a long-time acquaintance of Kim Brown, told her that Pooler had said he was going to kill her because if he could not have her, no one else would. (Evidence showed that Kim Brown had begun seeing another man.) Two days later, Pooler knocked on the front door of the apartment where Kim and her younger brother, Alvonza Colson, lived with their mother. Seeing Pooler through the door window, Kim told him that she did not want to see him anymore. Alvonza opened the door halfway and asked Pooler what he wanted but would not let him in. When Pooler brandished a gun, Alvonza let go of the door and tried to run out the door, but he was shot in the back by Pooler. Pooler pulled Alvonza back into the apartment by his leg. Kim begged Pooler not to kill her brother or her and began vomiting into her hands. She suggested they take Alvonza to the hospital. Pooler originally agreed but then told Alvonza to stay and call himself an ambulance while Pooler left with Kim. However, rather than follow Pooler out the door, Kim shut and locked it behind him. Alvonza told Kim to run out the back door for her life while he stayed in the apartment to call for an ambulance. When he discovered that the telephone wires had”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Pooler v. Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections · 980 So. 2d 460 - Pooler v. State

3. “We have never approved a per se “domestic dispute” exception to the imposition of the death penalty. As we explained in Spencer v. State, 691 So.2d 1062 (Fla.1997), there have been cases involving domestic disputes in which we struck the cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP) aggravator on the basis that the heated passions involved negated the “cold” element of CCP. However, our reason for reversing the death penalty in those cases was that the striking of that aggravator rendered the death sentence disproportionate in light of the overall circumstances. E.g., White v. State, 616 So.2d 21 (Fla.1993); Santos v. State, 591 So.2d 160 (Fla.1991); Douglas v. State, 575 So.2d 165 (Fla.1991); Fari- nas v. State, 569 So.2d 425 (Fla.1990); see also Wright v. State, 688 So.2d 298 (Fla.1996) (finding death sentence disproportionate where aggravating circumstances of prior violent felony and commission during a burglary were all related to defendant’s ongoing struggle with the victim and evidence in mitigation was copious); Nibert v. State, 574 So.2d 1059 (Fla.1990) (death sentence vacated as disproportionate in light of all the mitigating evidence that should have been found where sole aggravating circumstance was HAC). Indeed, we have upheld the death penalty as proportionate in a number of cases where the victim had a domestic relationship with the defendant. See Spencer [v. State, 645 So.2d 377, 384 (Fla.1994)]; Cummings-El v. State, 684 So.2d 729 (Fla.1996); Henry v. State, 649 S”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 37 So. 3d 212 - Turner v. State