State v. Jackett’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““. . . Where there is evidence that would support a finding of self-defense it has been held that the instructions should cover that feature of the case, notwithstanding the defendant’s testimony that he did not do the act from which the death resulted. (Reed v. The State, 141 Ind. 116 ; Morris v. Commonweath [Ky. 1898] 46 S. W. 491 ; Gatliff v. Commonwealth [Ky. 1908] 107 S. W. 739 .) . . . “In the present case it is plain that the evidence required the question whether Jackett acted in self-defense to be left to the jury, unless his denial of the shooting eliminated that issue. If the evidence tending to justify the killing had been clear and convincing there would be little difficulty in saying that the jury should pass upon that feature of the case, notwithstanding his protest that he fired no shot. Suppose, by way of illustration, a bystander had seen the fatal shot fired, while the pistol was pointed upward at an angle of forty-five degrees, and that marks on a building had been found indicating that the bullet had been deflected downward: under such circumstances the theory that the defendant fired merely to frighten away his assailants, the death of one of them resulting from an accident, would have presented itself so insistently that the defendant’s denial of the shooting obviously should not prevent the jury from acting on the real facts. Whether an affirmative defense which is inconsistent with a part of the defendant’s own testimony should be submitted to the jur”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Smith