State v. West’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 27 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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “brief erroneous characterizations of the jury’s role in determining the appropriateness of a death sentence were sufficiently corrected by the trial judge [in its charge to the jury on its responsibility in determining the death penalty] and the accurate portions of the district attorney’s and the defendant’s arguments stressing the proper responsibility of the jury.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. West v. Bell · State v. Jordan

2. “The decision you are going to be called upon to make obviously is very serious, it is one of the most serious you will ever make. But, on the other hand, if you will listen to what the Judge tells you the law is, you will see that it is not necessarily a difficult decision in that sense. In the application of the law. Because the law provides certain guidelines, certain perimeters within which you are to consider the verdict, your secondary verdict in this case. See, the law in Tennessee, and the law of the land, in this sense, is self-executing, in the sense that the law mandates, requires a death sentence in certain situations, unless it is outweighed by other factors. The law is clear. Your responsibility once again is to weigh proof, to make a finding of fact, apply the applicable law to those facts and the law provides the punishment, not you, not you. You do not set punishment in this case, per se. You make decisions based upon fact and the law, self-executing, based upon your weighing the facts. Was [the mitigating evidence] enough to outweigh torture, the depravity, the atrociousness, and all of the other things the State contends it has shown? See. You have to weigh them. That is your function. And if the State tips the scales and proves those things to you beyond a reasonable doubt, and what you heard for the defendant today doesn’t outweigh this ... then the penalty is death. That is the law. That is the law. As the law states, and the Judge will tell you this, onc”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. West v. Bell

3. “We agree that the district attorney’s statements that “the law is self-executing”, that the law “provides the punishment, not you”, and the concluding statement that “you don’t impose the sentence, the law provides the sentence, you are merely finders of fact”, violate Caldwell. Such statements minimize the jury’s role and allows [sic] them to feel that the responsibility for a death sentence rests elsewhere.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. West v. Bell