Williams v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1991
Citation profile
25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently July 2022 · most notably State v. Sababu Hodari (2000), Carlson v. State (2006)
25 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on McClain v. State · State v. Chaney · Pears v. State · Tookak v. State · State v. Wentz
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.
“At a minimum, ... the principle of reasonable sentencing uniformity requires a sentencing judge who decides that an offender deserves a sentence which is significantly different from sentences previously given to similarly situated offenders to expressly find some legitimate basis for the difference — some basis related to “legally relevant sentencing criteria.” That basis should be spelled out on the sentencing record, so that the defendant and a reviewing court can understand the reasons for the disparity.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Brown v. State · Ross v. State“any sound reason may be relied on to differentiate one case from another.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Brown v. State · Grossman v. State“Declaration of purpose. The purpose of this chapter is to provide the means for determining the appropriate sentence to be imposed upon conviction of an offense. The legislature finds that the elimination of unjustified disparity in sentences and the attainment of reasonable uniformity in sentences can best be achieved through a sentencing framework fixed by statute as provided in this chapter. In imposing sentence, the court shall consider (1) the seriousness of the defendant's present offense in relation to other offenses; (2) the prior criminal history of the defendant and the likelihood of rehabilitation; (3) the need to confine the defendant to prevent further harm to the public; (4) the circumstances of the offense and the extent to which the offense harmed the victim or endangered the public safety or order; (5) the effect of the sentence to be imposed in deterring the defendant or other members of society from future criminal conduct; (6) the effect of the sentence to be imposed as a community condemnation of the criminal act and as a reaffirmation of societal norms; and (7) the restoration of the victim and the community.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Carlson v. State
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.