Long v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The defendant argues that, while there was evidence that the victim suffered fractured bones, there was no evidence that these injuries resulted from her being forcefully removed from one place to another and that, for this reason, there was insufficient evidence to prove the serious bodily injury element of criminal confinement as a Class B felony. The State argues that "the jury should have inferred that Foddrill's injuries to her nose and eye socket were caused during her movement from one place to another ...," but does not identify any evidence tending to prove this asserting. We find that the evidence was insufficient to establish that the conduct constituting the charged offense of criminal confinement resulted in serious bodily injury, as required to constitute a[Cllass B felony.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Anthony T. Mickens v. State of Indiana · State of Indiana v. Frank Greene

2. “Long insisted that although there was evidence that his victim [ ] suffered fractured facial bones, there was no evidence that these injuries resulted from her being forcefully removed from one place to another. Without such evidence, he reasoned, there was insufficient evidence to establish the serious bodily injury enhancement. The State countered that "the jury could have inferred that [the victim]'s injuries to her nose and eye socket were caused during her movement from one place to another" but did not identify any evidence as proof. On review, we found that "the evidence was insufficient to establish that the conduct constituting the charged offense of criminal confinement resulted in serious bodily injury." Crucially, "the charged offense" was that (1) Long (2) knowingly or intentionally (3) removed the victim from one place to another (4) by force. Ind. Code § 35-42-3-3 . At issue were elements three and four, and without identifying the circumstances under which [the victim] sustained facial fractures, the State could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that [the victim]'s serious bodily injury occurred during her forcible removal from one place to another. This was likely attributable to the facts of the case: Long and two others confined [the victim] for possibly longer than one week in an attic, and in the course of her captivity and murder, inflicted numerous injuries upon her. Under these circumstances, the State was likely unable to isolate precisely when ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Anthony T. Mickens v. State of Indiana

3. “Criminal confinement is a Class B felony if it "results in serious bodily injury to another person." Ind.Code § 35-42-3-3. Redman contends that there was no evidence that the victim's fractured bones resulted from the criminal offense of removal from one place to another. The State does not respond to this contention, but rather argues only that Redman held the vietim captive in an attic for several days and that the vice-tim's injuries resulted "during the course of her confinement." The State does not identify any evidence tending to show that the victim's broken bones resulted from Redman's removal of her from one place to another. Because we conclude that there was insufficient evidence to permit a jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim's injuries resulted from the charged criminal offense of eriminal confinement by removing the victim from one place to another, we vacate the conviction as a Class B felony [.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State of Indiana v. Frank Greene