Morris v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 21 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2008
20 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Furman v. Georgia · Booth v. Maryland · United States v. Dellinger · Silverthorne v. United States · McQueen v. Commonwealth
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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[T]he lower court should have informed the jury there are four penalties for the capital offense of intentional murder— viz, death, life without parole or probation for 25 years, life, or a term of not less than 20 years. KRS 532.030. The jury should be asked the simple question “If you determine under the instructions of the court beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of intentional murder, could you consider the entire range of penalties provided by statutes of this Commonwealth as outlined to you?””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Both the Commonwealth and the defendant are entitled to a panel of jurors who will consider the entire range of punishment. Those who will not should be struck by the Court for cause.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“this thwarted questioning relating to the sole crime with which [defendant] was charged, that of intentional murder.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.