Sharp v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The words ‘and’ and ‘or’ as used in statutes are not interchangeable, being strictly of a conjunctive and disjunctive nature respectively, and their ordinary meaning should be followed if it does not render the sense of the statute dubious.” Barr v. Sun Exploration Co., Inc., 436 N.E.2d 821, 824-825 (Ind.Ct.App.1982). The ordinary meaning of “or” in Ind. Code § 35-38-2-3 (g) is disjunctive and, thus, the statute gives the trial court the authority to do one of the following: (1) continue the probation with or without modifications; (2) extend the probationary period; or (3) order the execution of the suspended sentence. Here, the trial court both continued Sharp’s probation with modifications under subsection (g)(1) and also extended the probationary period under (g)(2). The trial court only had the statutory authority to do one of the three options in Ind.Code § 35-38-2-3[ (g) ], not two of the options. Consequently, the trial court exceeded its statutory authority, and we must reverse and remand for resentenc-ing.”

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