Shields v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “DEFENSE COUNSEL: Q. Reverend. I’d like to ask you a few questions as to what happened in the jury room. Now you were the foreman of the jury that assessed punishment at 25 years, is that correct, sir? THE WITNESS: Right. Q. Now in the jury room there was discussion of the parole law and its application to this Defendant, is that correct, sir? A. That’s right. Q. All right, sir. Now was it asserted as a fact by other jurors there in the jury room that if Danny Shields, the Defendant, were assessed a sentence to serve 25 years in the Texas Department of Corrections 3 , that he would be released in eight years or less? A. Right. Q. This was asserted as fact? A. (Indicating affirmatively) THE COURT: Could you respond? THE WITNESS: Yes. DEFENSE COUNSEL: And, Reverend, by that statement — And that statement was made by other jurors back there, is that correct, sir? THE WITNESS: Correct. Q. All right. Now that statement that he would be released in eight years or less was not in any way conditioned on Danny Shields’ behaving himself in the penitentiary, is that correct? A. No. Q. And not conditioned in any way on exercise of discretion by the Parole Board, is that correct, sir? A. (Indicating negatively) Q. He— A. No. Just, We will give him 25 years, because he’ll be out in eight years anyway.’ Q. All right, sir. And that was a definite fact, that, ‘If we give him 25 years, he’ll be out in eight,’ is that correct? A. Yes. Q. And did you rely on the correctness of that statement? A. ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Shields v. State