Ex Parte Sewell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

28 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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “If the court of appeals ... awards a new trial to the defendant only on the basis of an error or errors made in the punishment stage of the trial, the cause shall stand as it would have stood in case the new trial had been granted by the court below, except that the court shall commence the new trial as if a finding of guilt had been returned and proceed to the punishment stage of the trial....”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rodriguez v. State · Goodlow v. State

2. “In urging their motion, the State makes two assumptions that are, in our view, erroneous. First, the State assumes that by the words "to answer the indictment” at the end of the Court's opinion, we ordered that the applicant be retried as to guilt. We did not. Neither did we order that he be retried only as to punishment. We simply granted him relief and set aside the previous judgment of conviction, then, just as the opinion says, remanded him to the sheriff to answer the indictment. Second, the State interprets Art. 44.29(b), supra, to be directed to this Court. It is not. The article plainly is directed at the trial court to take appropriate action in appropriate circumstances. The proper forum to urge the application of the article is the trial court.”

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