852 So. 2d 801 - Carroll v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"`The jury did not have before [it] the presentence report, background information and history of the defendant, his family, education and work history. The jury was not aware of the fact that the defendant had served a period of incarceration and had just been released for a very short time when he obtained a weapon and committed this intentional murder during a robbery. The jury did not view and was not privy to the expression of the pain of the victim's family expressed at the sentencing hearing before the Court. "`Although this Court always gives, and did in this case give, great weight and consideration to a jury's recommendation as to punishment, considering the above, the Court found it appropriate to overrule the jury's recommendation of life without parole.'"”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Carroll v. State · 852 So. 2d 833 - Ex Parte Carroll

2. “"[A] trial court may consider a defendant's juvenile adjudications to be a relevant consideration in deciding what weight to assign to the statutory mitigating circumstances of a defendant's lack of a significant prior criminal history and a defendant's age at the time of the offense.... In other words, during the sentencing process in a capital case, the trial court may use a defendant's juvenile record to diminish the weight to be accorded the mitigating circumstance of that defendant's lack of a significant history of prior criminal activity, as well as the mitigating circumstance of that defendant's age at the time he or she committed the capital offense, but the trial court may not use the juvenile record as the basis for giving little or no weight to such mitigating circumstances. "”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 852 So. 2d 833 - Ex Parte Carroll

3. “"The trial court's sentencing order reflects that the court gave `consideration to the recommendation of the jury in its advisory verdict that the defendant be sentenced to life without parole.' R. 65. The court, however, after independently weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, determined that the aggravating circumstance outweighed the mitigating circumstances and chose not to accept the jury's recommendation. Constitutional and statutory provisions require no more."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 908 So. 2d 273 - Smith v. State