State v. Weaver’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 47 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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “fundamental error occurs only when the omission is pertinent or material to what the jury must consider in order to convict.”

   9 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Phillips v. State · Wright v. State

2. “[although Delva involved the trial court’s omission from the jury instructions of an element of an offense that the defendant did not contest ... the same principle applies to the erroneous inclusion of an element that the State does not argue is present and about which it presents no evidence. As with the omission of an element of the offense that is not contested, the erroneous inclusion of an element that the State concedes does not apply, and concerning which it presents no evidence, is not “pertinent or material to what the jury must consider in order to convict.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Insko v. State · 51 So. 3d 445 - Jaimes v. State

3. “Because bodily harm was never at issue in Weaver's case, and the State never argued or presented evidence of bodily harm, the trial court's inclusion of the bodily harm element in the jury instructions did not rise to the level of fundamental error.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Beasley v. State · Sanders v. State