Floyd v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 22 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “from making the judgment at the outset that those offenders never will be fit to reenter society.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. People v. Rainer · Wyatt L. Bear Cloud

2. “[a] State is not required to guarantee eventual freedom to a juvenile offender[,]”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. STATE VS. BOSTON (ANDRE) · STATE VS. BOSTON (ANDRE)

3. “Appellant, if he serves the entirety of his sentence, will be ninety-seven when he is released. Even if Appellant received the maximum amount of gain time, the earliest he would be released is at age eighty-five. See § 921.002(1)(e), Fla. Stat. (1998) (providing that parole is not applied to defendants sentenced under the Criminal Punishment Code, that sentences in Florida reflect the length of actual time to be served, shortened only by the application of incentive and meritorious gain time, and that defendants must serve no less than eighty-five percent of their term of imprisonment). This situation does not in any way provide Appellant with a meaningful or realistic opportunity to obtain release, as required by Graham. While the trial court was correct that the Eighth Amendment does not foreclose the possibility that juveniles who commit non-homicide crimes will remain in prison for life, Graham also cautioned that states are foreclosed from making the judgment at the outset that those offenders will never be fit to reenter society.... [[Image here]] In this case, common sense dictates[ 2 ] that Appellant’s eighty-year sentence, which, according to the statistics cited by Appellant, is longer than his life expectancy, is the functional equivalent of a life without parole sentence and will not provide him with a meaningful or realistic opportunity to obtain release.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 151 So. 3d 20 - Javarris Lane v. State of Florida