Conway v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Derek Brandon Conway was a friend of Joseph Jansen. Jansen became aware that Conway and his wife, Christina, had separated. Heather Es-sary, an ex-girlfriend of Conway’s, contacted Conway and told him that Christina and Jansen were using Es-sary’s cell phone to communicate with each other. Conway called Christina and accused her of seeing Jansen, an accusation Christina denied. Conway told Christina that he would fight Jansen when Jansen returned from Alabama. Jansen called Conway and asked him why he was being accused of sleeping with Christina. Conway said nothing in reply, and the conversation was ended. After the telephone conversation, many of Conway’s friends informed him that Jansen and Christina were sleeping together. Conway again called Jansen and accused him of sleeping with his wife. Jansen again denied the allegations. According to Jansen, they talked the situation over and Conway eventually told Jansen that he believed him. On the afternoon of July 4, 2002, Conway and two of his friends, Michael Smith and Paul Ingram, went to Conway’s mother’s house. They ingested crystal methamphetamine and remained at Conway’s mother’s house until the evening. At approximately 8:00 p.m. Conway, Smith, and Ingram drove to Bud’s and Sud’s Car Wash to wash Smith’s car. Next to Bud’s and Sud’s is the Kangaroo store. Ingram was shopping for something to drink. As Conway and Smith were vacuuming the car, Conway saw Anthony Thames’[s] truck pull up at the Kangaroo store. Thames was d”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Conway v. State

2. “The circuit court has considerable discretion in matters pertaining to discovery, and its exercise of discretion will be set aside only if there is an abuse of discretion. Gray v. State, 799 So.2d 53, 60 (¶ 26) (Miss.2001). The circuit court judge agreed with the prosecutor that the presence of fingerprints on the beer bottle and [Maglite] were irrelevant as to whether Conway acted in self-defense. Only relevant evidence is admissible. M.R.E. 401. The question of whether evidence is relevant is within the discretion of the trial judge. Federal Land Bank of Jackson v. Wolfe, 560 So.2d 137, 140 (Miss.1989). The circuit court judge did not abuse his discretion in denying Conway’s motion for discovery.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Conway v. State

3. ““No trial is free of error; however, to require reversal the error must be of such magnitude as to leave no doubt that the appellant was unduly prejudiced.” Busick v. St. John, 856 So.2d 304, 308 (¶ 9) (Miss.2003) (citing Davis v. Singing River Elec. Power Ass’n, 501 So.2d 1128, 1131 (Miss.1987); Parmes v. Illinois Cent. Gulf R.R., 440 So.2d 261, 268 (Miss.1983)). When the weight of the evidence against the defendant is overwhelming, such error is harmless. Moss v. State, 727 So.2d 720, 725-26 (¶ 24) (Miss.Ct.App.1998). Based on this Court’s review of the record and the evidence against Conway, we find that the evidence against Conway is overwhelming.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Conway v. State