Fisher v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Consistency in the verdict is not necessary. ... The most that can be said in such cases is that the verdict shows that either in the acquittal or the conviction the jury did not speak their real conclusions, but that does not show that they were not convinced of the defendant’s guilt. We interpret the acquittal as no more than their assumption of a power which they had no right to exercise, but to which they were disposed through lenity... .That the verdict may have been the result of compromise, or of a mistake on the part of the jury, is possible. But verdicts cannot be upset by speculation or inquiry into such matters. [Citations and internal quotation marks omitted.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. McClain v. United States

2. “act[ing] in conscious disregard of an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to decedent”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re Jf