Whatley v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “In the instant case, appellant acknowledges that he received proper notice from the indictment in Count I that the State would seek an affirmative finding of the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon, “to wit: a screwdriver.” That element of the offense of aggravated robbery as charged was submitted to the jury and rejected when the jury found appellant guilty of the lesser-included offense. Appellant in effect contends that this concluded the State’s intention to seek an affirmative finding of a deadly weapon of which he had been given notice. Without further notice, written or otherwise, and without further evidence on the issue, the penalty stage of the trial was conducted. At this point, appellant learned for the first time that the State was asking for a special issue type submission of a different deadly weapon charge, this time allowing the jury to first determine the nature of instrument or weapon used and then to decide if the chosen instrument or weapon was used as a deadly weapon.”

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

2. “[I]f a defendant pointed a gun at another person and commanded that person to engage in conduct constituting a capital or first degree felony, that defendant would have “used or exhibited” a deadly weapon during the offense of solicitation. This same reasoning applies to a “request” or an “attempt to induce” except that the use of a weapon is merely persuasive rather than coercive. The persuasive impact of the weapon may be a part of the request or the attempt to induce conduct by strengthening those elements of the solicitation. The offense need not be based upon words alone. Hence, merely exhibiting a deadly weapon to an accomplice during a solicitation transaction may be sufficient to support a deadly weapon finding — especially where, as in the present case, the weapons were deadly weapons per se.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Searcy v. State

3. “used or exhibited to facilitate the commission of”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Dowdle v. State