State v. Childers’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

41 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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Silva argues that the word “serious” in the definition is meant to modify both “permanent disfigurement” and “protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.” Silva maintains that, because Dr. Behrendt’s stipulated testimony stated only that Simpson had suffered a protracted loss or impairment of his right eye and not a serious protracted loss or impairment, the prosecution failed to adduce sufficient evidence at trial to convict him under HRS Sec. 707-710. We disagree. First, it is clear from the plain phrasing of the applicable statutory definition that the word “serious” modifies only the first phrase — “permanent disfigurement” — and not the second phrase beginning with “protracted loss.” Additionally, simple logic dictates that the word “serious” is only meant to modify the first phrase and not the second. Moreover, the addition of the modifier “serious” would add nothing to the second applicable phrase other than redundancy. By its very nature, a “protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ” is a serious injury. ... It is incomprehensible that the protracted loss or impairment of a leg, an arm, or an eye, as in the present case, could be anything but “serious.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hardaway v. State

2. “Childers has failed to meet his burden on either prong of the Strickland test. [Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 , 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).] Whether to file a motion to sever is part of counsel’s trial strategy, which we will not second guess on appeal. Childers did not overcome the presumption that this strategy was sound. Smith v. State, 628 S.W.2d 393, 395 (Mo.App.1982). Childers was not prejudiced by the failure to sever. The jury was instructed to consider separately each count and the evidence and law applicable to it. There is nothing in the record to indicate that the jury was unable to distinguish the evidence on the escape charge from the other charges or to properly apply the law to each offense. State v. Fowler, 758 S.W.2d 99, 101 (Mo.App.1988). The motion court’s findings and conclusions are not clearly erroneous.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Townes