Lechner v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 2 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[iJn 1994, the legislature again amended the statute, eliminating the subsections addressing offenses against children between 12 and 16 years of age, and criminalizing sexual activity by persons of any age involving persons under 14 years of age. See P.L. 7900-1994 Section 12. However, in amending the statute, the legislature failed to amend the subsection establishing as a defense the actor's reasonable belief that the victim was 16 years of age or older. So, in its current form the statute appears to retain a 'reasonable belief defense predicated upon a category of offense-sexual activity involving children aged 12 to 16-which no longer exists.”

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

2. “the legislature's failure to modify the age at which the defense becomes available to a defendant was in the nature of an oversight or serivener's error and could not be reflective of a legislative intent to permit the defense only when the actor believes the victim is 16 or older, when the statute itself does not prokibit the activity with a child aged 14 to 16.”

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

3. “It is a defense that the person who engaged in the prohibited conduct was reasonably mistaken about a matter of fact, if the mistake negates the culpability required for commission of the offense.”

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