Sullivan v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 21 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. “MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE Section 39-2402 of Tennessee Code Annotated provides as follows: (a) Every murder perpetrated by means of poison, lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing, or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any murder in the first degree, rape, robbery, or kidnapping, is murder in the first degree. Rape is the unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman, forcibly and against her will. Carnal knowledge is accomplished by the commencement of a sexual connection, and proof of emission is not required. Carnal knowledge is the insertion of the male organ of the male, to some extent, however slightly, into the female organ or private parts of a female, and if it is done forcibly and against the will of the female, it is rape. Robbery is the felonious and forcible taking from the person of another goods or money of any value, by violence or putting the person in fear. Kidnapping is defined in T.C.A. See. 39-2601 as follows: Any person who forcibly or unlawfully confines, inveigles, or entices away another, with the intent to cause him to be secretly confined, or imprisoned against his will, or to be sent out of the state against his will must, on conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary. Under this definition of Murder in the First Degree the killing must be done willfully, that is of purpose, with the intent that the act by which the life of the party is taken should have that effect; Delibe”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Rickman v. State

2. “It follows that, under the statute as thus amended, when the defendant shot and killed [the deceased] while he was attempting to perpetrate or commit murder in the first degree upon the body of [his brother] he committed murder in the first degree. And the attempt to commit murder in the first degree upon [his brother] supplies the elements of deliberation and premeditation; so that the State did not have to show deliberation and premeditation on the part of defendant to take the life of deceased.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Millen v. State

3. “At common law it was not necessary to charge in an indictment for murder that the murder was committed in the perpetration of another crime, in order to introduce proof showing that a felony was attempted in committing it; it was sufficient to charge murder in the common form, and then, upon proof that it was committed in the perpetration of a felony, malice, deliberation, and premeditation were implied.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Arnett