935 So. 2d 797 - State v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under La. R.S. 14:20(1), a homicide is justifiable when committed in self-defense by one who reasonably believes she is in imminent danger of being killed or receiving great bodily harm and that the homicide is necessary to save herself from danger. When self-defense is raised as an issue by the defendant, the state has the burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the homicide was not perpetrated in self-defense. When the defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence in such a case, the question becomes whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the homicide was not committed in self-defense.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 965 So. 2d 580 - State v. Brown