State v. Carter’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 2 district · 50 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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “... the primary goal in [a capital] sentencing phase is to acquire a thorough acquaintance with the character and history of the person before the court.... Permitting the State to introduce victim impact evidence shifts the focus of the proceeding from the defendant to the victim and the effect of the murder on the victim’s family and community. This adds nothing to the culpability analysis and is fraught with danger.... Aside from causing the jury to lose sight of its immediate task, the shift suggests that some victims are more valuable to society and/or deserve more sympathy than others. Further, a judge or jury considering the victim impact evidence is more likely to empathize with the family’s tragedy, perhaps asking, ‘What if I, or a member of my family, were the murder victim?” Such empathy dangerously increases the possibility of improper passion or prejudice.... [Moreover] ... we find that victim impact evidence simply has no probative force in the sentencing context. Such evidence does not make it more or less likely that a defendant deserves the death penalty. In our society, individuals are of equal value and must be treated that way. We will not tempt sentencing authorities to distinguish among victims — to find one person’s death more or less deserving for retribution merely because he or she was held in higher or lower regard by family and peers. Such a scheme draws lines in our society that we think should not be drawn. The worth of a human life is inestimabl”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Alvarado v. State · Goff v. State

2. “If the hearing lasts for any length of time and the jury takes the depositions or transcript to be read and discussed while the oral evidence contra has in a measure faded from the memory of the jurors, it is obvious that the side sustained by written evidence is given an undue advantage. The law does not permit depositions or witnesses to go to the jury room.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Cruz · State v. Cantarero

3. “a child's interview taken by police for the purpose of prosecuting crime, which is then introduced at trial and subjected to live cross-examination, constitutes ... testimony[, or is testimonial in nature,] ... and thus should not be given to the jury during its deliberations.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Peraza · State v. Cantarero