McKenzie v. Risley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 federal appellate · 2 district · 1 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The victim in this case was Lana Harding, a 23 year old rural school teacher in Pondera County, Montana. On Tuesday morning, January 22, 1974, she failed to appear at school. At the Pioneer School teacherage where she lived the bed was found in a disheveled condition. The sheriff of Pondera County was called and officers were dispatched to the school arriving there midmorning. Investigation that day revealed (1) a red tennis shoe belonging to Lana Harding just outside the school, (2) a drag trail from the teacherage to a nearby road, (3) blood near the end of the drag trail (later identified as Lana’s type and RH factor) and (4) a wrist watch belonging to Lana in the same area as the blood. Lana Harding was last seen in Conrad, Montana, 13 miles from the teacherage on Monday, January 21, at about 5:00 p.m. Defendant had recently moved into the community and was working for the K & K Wholesale Seed Company, located approximately three miles from the Pioneer School teacherage. A day or so before January 21 he made arrangements to buy a 1948 black Dodge pickup, recognizable to most inhabitants of the area because it had belonged to one local owner for a long period of time. On January 21 defendant had worked on the pickup after work. He was seen leaving K & K Wholesale Seed Company at approximately 6:45 p.m. in his black pickup headed toward his place of residence not far from the teacherage. The pickup was seen about 7:00 p.m. about a mile from the teacherage. Approximately an ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. McKenzie v. Risley

2. “The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and the sentence. State v. McKenzie (I), 557 P.2d 1023 , 171 Mont. 278 (1976). The Montana Supreme Court rejected McKenzie’s claim, inter alia, that the trial court’s jury instructions on presumptions and the Montana death penalty statute violated the Constitution. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated the judgment, and remanded for further consideration in light of Patterson v. New York, 432 U.S. 197 , 97 S.Ct. 2319 , 53 L.Ed.2d 281 (1977). McKenzie v. Montana, 433 U.S. 905 , 97 S.Ct. 2968 , 53 L.Ed.2d 1089 (1977). On remand, the Montana Supreme Court, after reexamining all of the issues raised by McKenzie, adhered to its original decision. State v. McKenzie (II), 581 P.2d 1205 , 177 Mont. 280 (1978). The Montana Court held that the jury instructions did not erroneously shift the burden of proof on the issue of intent, but even if they did, such an error would not have affected the jury’s verdict because the evidence of intent was overwhelming. 581 P.2d at 1223-24 . Following the Montana Supreme Court’s affirmance of the convictions and the sentence in McKenzie II, McKenzie sought relief through the Sentence Review Division of the Montana [Supreme] Court. His petition for review was denied. His attempted appeal of that decision to the Montana Supreme Court was also denied because there was no appeal from a decision of the Sentence Review Division. McKenzie again petitioned for certiora-ri to the United ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. McKenzie v. Risley

3. “The primary concerns the Supreme Court has expressed in discussing the death penalty have been the need for guidance of the fact finder's discretion and an opportunity for review of the exercise of that discretion.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Coleman v. Risley