State v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 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 1 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “On the merits, there is no true legal inconsistency because of the rational possibility (which is, in fact, consistent with the evidence in this case) that the guilty verdict as to first degree felony murder was based on a finding that, as the felony statute provides and as the jury was instructed, the death occurred in the course of an attempted robbery, rather than a completed one. Because attempted robbery was not instructed upon as a lesser included offense of the robbery count, and was thus not rejected by the jury, the two verdicts logically can be reconciled, thus requiring reversal.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 959 So. 2d 218 - Brown v. State

2. “the defendant [was] precluded even from claiming a fatal inconsistency between the verdicts . . . because he endorsed and supported the trial judge's charge to the jury, in accordance with the standard jury instruction, that the evidence as to each of the counts must be `considered separately and a separate verdict returned as to each.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 959 So. 2d 218 - Brown v. State

3. “`legally inconsistent' with the theft conviction, on the theory that an acquittal of armed robbery, implied by the guilty verdict of the `lower' offense of theft, precluded the finding that the defendant had committed that felony, as required for a felony murder conviction.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 959 So. 2d 218 - Brown v. State