881 So. 2d 281 - Swindle v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The night before the trial, Darrell Swindle and Darrell's wife called the victim, crying and asking her to change her testimony. This really upset Sheila considering the history of her and Darrell. Yen years ago he told the victim he would have her and her family killed if she ever had anything to do with sending him to jail. Even if he went to jail, he told her he would have his brother kill them all and all he would have to do is six months in Whitfield because he has gotten off that easy (in another state) for the same thing. All this time since the crime, she couldn't keep her children in sports because she was afraid he would find them and kill them. She had her number changed because his family kept harassing her in the beginning. Now it has just come out in the new phone book, and Darrell and his wife called this week (as per above). He has physically assaulted her in the past and she knows how violent he is capable of being which makes her take his threats seriously.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 881 So. 2d 174 - Swindle v. State

2. “The law is clear that, even when a defendant pleads guilty to the crime itself, if he is aggrieved as to the sentence imposed by the trial court for any reason cognizable under the law, the defendant is entitled to have the sentence reviewed by a direct appeal. All of the complaints raised by [the petitioner] directly relating to the manner in which he was sentenced existed immediately at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing and were, thus, appropriate matters for a direct appeal. The Mississippi Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act specifically provides that direct appeal shall be the principal means of reviewing all criminal convictions and sentences, and the purpose of this chapter is to provide prisoners with a procedure, limited in nature, to review those objections, defenses, claims, questions, issues or errors which in practical reality could not be or should not have been raised at trial or on direct appeal.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 20 So. 3d 734 - Martin v. State

3. “This Court has serious reservations regarding the propriety of such information in a victim impact statement. It certainly far exceeds the limited purposes for which such statements may be offered as a part of the sentencing process as outlined in the applicable statute. The statute plainly limits the contents of the statement to matters relating to the direct impact of the crime itself on the victim and does not appear to condone the kind of open-ended accusations of other incidents of wrongful conduct by the defendant that are contained in Odom's statement.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 881 So. 2d 174 - Swindle v. State