8 Md. App. 684 - Adams v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Since the Code of Hammurabi (circa 2250 B.C.) and down through the ages, society, under the law, has viewed and treated offenders of tender years in a light differently and more favorably than that accorded adults accused of breaching the law. Over the centuries and during the evolution of the common law of England, there emerged a rule of law governing ‘the responsibility of infants’ under which an individual below the age of seven years cannot be found guilty of committing a crime; an individual above fourteen years charged with a crime is to be adjudged as an adult; and between the ages of seven and fourteen there is a rebuttable presumption that such individual is incapable of committing a crime. In the absence of any pertinent legislative enactment in this State, the common law principles, as stated above, would appear to govern in Maryland and we so hold. “In the case at bar, the appellant was shown to be thirteen years, ten and a half months of age at the time the crime was committed. It was, therefore, incumbent upon the State to produce sufficient evidence to overcome the presumption that the appellant was doli incapax, an expression ordinarily employed by the text writers. The proof necessary to meet this burden has been variously phrased: It must be shown that the individual ‘had discretion to judge between good and evil;’ ‘knew right from wrong;’ had ‘a guilty knowledge of wrong-doing;’ was ‘competent to know the nature and consequences of his conduct and to appr”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re William A. · 85 Md. App. 674 - In Re Devon T.

2. ““It was, therefore, incumbent upon the State to produce sufficient evidence to overcome the presumption that the appellant was doli incapax, an expression ordinarily employed by the text writers. The proof necessary to meet this burden has been variously phrased: It must be shown that the individual ‘had discretion to judge between good and evil;’ ‘knew right from wrong;’ had ‘a guilty knowledge of wrong-doing;’ was ‘competent to know the nature and consequences of his conduct and to appreciate that it was wrong.’ Perhaps the most modern definition of the test is simply that the surrounding circumstances must demonstrate, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the individual knew what he was doing and that it was wrong.” (footnote omitted).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 85 Md. App. 674 - In Re Devon T.

3. “[T]he fact that a murder occurred during the perpetration of one of the felonies enumerated in [the statute] determines only the degree of the crime and the penalty to be imposed. Proof of facts showing that a robbery was committed is only one of the elements of proof necessary to establish the crime of first degree murder. In effect, there is no difference between proving the felony and proving willfulness, deliberateness and premeditation in a first degree murder case under [the statute].... There is no necessity for the State to indict and convict the accused of the underlying felony of robbery to sustain a conviction of murder in the first degree.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 181 Md. App. 298 - McMillan v. State