Simmons v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1995
Citation profile
9 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently January 2015
9 state decisions
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 Brown v. Ohio · McClain v. State · United States v. Jones · Lewis v. State · State v. Williams
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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[The fundamental problem with the State’s argument is that], although the evidence presented at trial might theoretically have supported a finding of interrupted possession, the jury was never required to consider or decide the issue. Because the instructions did not apprise the jury of the need to find that Simmons’ possession of the .44 magnum pistol had been interrupted at some point between the first alleged offense and the second, the jury’s verdicts left the issue unresolved. At this juncture, “[a]ny ambiguity must be resolved in favor of the accused.” Accordingly, we conclude that Simmons’ two convictions must merge.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Ht appears to be a well-settled proposition in felon-in-possession cases that the element of possession implies continuity.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“With equal propriety the Government might have charged Jones with possession on more than 1100 separate days and obtained convictions to imprison Jones for the rest of his life. The fact that the Government merely has proof that he possessed the same weapon on three separate occasions, rather than continuously for a three-year period, should not dictate the result that Jones could receive three times the punishment he would face if continuous possession for a three year period were proved. There is no proof that there was any interruption in the possession by Jones of the weapon.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Hancock v. State
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.