Cooper v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

25 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “If you want a lawyer to be present during questioning, at this time or any time thereafter, you are entitled to have a lawyer present.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 111 So. 3d 810 - Braddy v. State · 832 So. 2d 730 - Chavez v. State

2. “In the present case, as noted above, the trial court found that three aggravators had been established, i.e., commission of a prior capital or violent felony (based on a robbery-murder Cooper committed several days after the present crime), commission during a robbery and for pecuniary gain, and CCP. This Court in other capital cases has affirmed the death penalty where comparable or less aggravation was present. Thus, the first prong of the above standard appears to be satisfied. The trial court additionally found that two statutory and several nonstatutory mitigators were established, including Cooper's low intelligence (i.e., Dr. Schwartz testified that Cooper's test results placed him in the borderline retarded category) and his abusive childhood. This Court has reversed the death penalty in cases where multiple aggravators were posed against comparable mitigation. In addition to the evidence of brutal childhood, brain damage, mental retardation, and mental illness (i.e., paranoid schizophrenia) in the present case, the defendant was eighteen years old at the time of the crime and had no criminal record prior to the present offense. We note that the jury vote was eight-to-four. On this record, we cannot conclude that the present crime is one of the least mitigated murders this Court has reviewed. In fact, the record shows just the opposite—i.e., that this is one of the most mitigated killings we have reviewed. Accordingly, Cooper's death sentence is disproportionate.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Crook v. State · 841 So. 2d 329 - Bell v. State

3. “legislative intent to extract the penalty of death for only the most aggravated, the most indefensible of crimes”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 770 So. 2d 1119 - Kearse v. State · 948 So. 2d 655 - Rodgers v. State