Hicks v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1889
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 41 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 44 later decisions — most recently May 2019 · most notably Commonwealth v. Peaslee (1901), Braham v. State (1977)
2 federal appellate · 41 state decisions — followed in 18 states
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 People v. Murray
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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The evidence shows very clearly the intention of the defendant; but something moré than the mere intention is necessary to constitute the oliense charged. Between preparation for the attempt and the attempt itself there is a wide difference. The preparation consists in devising or arranging the means or measures necessary for the commission of the offense; the attempt is the direct movement towards the commission after the preparations are made. To illustrate: A party may purchase and load a gun, with the declared intention to shoot his neighbor; but, until some movement is made to usé the weapon upon the person of Jiis intended victim, there is only preparation, and not an attempt. For rhe preparation he may be held to keep the peace, but he is not chargeable with any intent to kill. So, in the present case, the declarations and elopement and request for a magistrate were preparatory to the marriage; but until the officer was engaged, and the parties stood before him, ready to take the vows appropriate to the contract of marriage, it cannot be said in strictness (i. e., in a legal sense) that the attempt was made. The attempt contemplated by the statute must be manifested by acts which would end in the consummation of the particular offense but for the intervention of circumstances independent of the will of the party.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““An attempt to commit a crime is compounded of two elements: (1) The intent to commit it; and (2) a direct ineffectual act done towaids its commission.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““An attempt is an intended, apparent, unfinished crime.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.