78 Wash. 2d 845 - State v. Cerny’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

46 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 46 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Appellant’s next two assignments of error are closely related and may be considered together; viz., that the trial court erred by allowing the jury to choose between life imprisonment and the death penalty without guidelines or standards on which to base such a choice; and that the trial court erred by following this state’s single verdict system of submitting simultaneously to the jury the two distinct issues of guilt and punishment. These contentions have been extensively considered by this court previously in State v. Smith, 74 Wn.2d 744 , 446 P.2d 571 (1968). Therein, we held that RCW 9.48.030, which permits the jury to make a special finding imposing the death penalty in first-degree murder cases, is not unconstitutional and invalid on the ground that it fails to provide standards to guide the jury in determining whether the death penalty should be imposed. Additionally, that case held the statutory procedure requiring simultaneous submission of the issues of guilt and of imposition of the death penalty in a first-degree murder case, and the resulting requirement that evidence on both issues be presented before a decision on either one, ■are not constitutionally defective. Nothing is presented in the instant case to persuade us that the holdings of Smith should be overruled.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 80 Wash. 2d 427 - State v. Boggs · 79 Wash. 2d 699 - State v. Music

2. “convictions based on eyewitness identification at trial following a pretrial identification by photograph will be set aside on that ground only if the photographic identification procedure was so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 6 Wash. App. 278 - State v. Finkley · 10 Wash. App. 298 - State v. Coburne

3. “On the evening of November 16, 1968, two men, masked with strips of adhesive or similar tape and armed with guns, entered and robbed the Lake City Shoprite. During the commission of the crime, one of the robbers shot, and fatally wounded, one George Washington Howard, a customer who attempted to thwart the robbery. Following the shooting, the robbers left the store and escaped by automobile. A witness pursuing the robbers in his automobile was fired upon twice. Although his attempts at capture were unsuccessful, the witness was able to obtain a description of the getaway vehicle and •its license number. Sometime after the robbery and on the same evening, one Michael Morris reported to the Tumwater Police Department that his automobile had been stolen from the parking lot of a Tumwater motel (located approximately 25 miles from the scene of the robbery). Morris’ vehicle was found by police the following morning in the back of the parking lot of the Tumwater motel. The vehicle matched the pursuing witness’ description of the getaway car; and, but for one letter, its license number coincided with the license of the robbers’ vehicle as remembered by the witness.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 84 Wash. 2d 59 - Cerny v. Smith