Riley v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1986
Citation profile
24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently February 2023 · most notably Ridgely v. State (1987), Thompson v. State (1989)
24 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on McClain v. State · State v. Chaney · Page v. State · Pears v. State · Brown v. State
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[Tamara Lynn] Riley and two other individuals, Ricky Eason and Harry Lewis, were convicted for the murder of Riley’s husband, Leon Riley, Jr. The evidence at Riley’s trial indicated that, in February 1984, Riley became employed as a dancer at P.J.’s, an Anchorage nightclub. There, she met Eason and Lewis. Riley became romantically involved with Eason. Apparently desiring to pursue her affair with Eason without interference from her husband, and wanting also to collect on her husband’s $35,000 life insurance policy, Riley plotted with Eason and Lewis to kill Leon Riley. Pursuant to their plan, on March 7, 1984, she invited Leon Riley to P.J.’s to see her dance. She later called Leon Riley from P.J.’s and told him that Eason would pick him up and give him a ride to the club. After making the call, Riley informed Eason and Lewis that everything was set. Eason and Lewis drove in Lewis’ van to the Rileys’ apartment, and Lewis hid in the back of the van when Leon Riley got in. As Eason drove back toward PJ.’s, Lewis grabbed Riley by the throat from behind and strangled him. After disposing of the body, Eason and Lewis returned to P.J.’s and informed Riley that her husband was dead.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Lewis v. State“Alaska cases have consistently approved the imposition of maximum sentences for the offense [of first-degree murder]. Indeed, we are aware of no decision of this court or of the Alaska Supreme Court holding a maximum sentence for first-degree murder to be excessive. Certainly, this does not mean that a sentence below the legal maximum would be inappropriate in every case of first-degree murder or that a maximum sentence could never be considered excessive for the offense. Nor does it mean that, in such cases, the sentencing court is free to disregard the obligation to base its sentence on a careful assessment of all applicable sentencing criteria. While the inherent seriousness of the offense will almost invariably require that the goals of isolation of the offender, general deterrence, and community condemnation be given a prominent role in sentencing, we believe it particularly important in first-degree murder cases involving youthful first offenders that rehabilitation and individual deterrence also be accorded careful scrutiny and appropriate weight.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Denbo v. State“careful scrutiny and appropriate weight,”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Gray v. State
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.