State v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 7 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. “The Louisiana Supreme Court has stated that courts have the power to declare a mandatory minimum sentence excessive under Article I, Section 20 of the Louisiana Constitution. However, that power should only be exercised in rare cases and only when the court is firmly convinced that the minimum sentence is excessive. State v. Thomas, [41,734 (La. App.2d Cir.1/24/07), 948 So.2d 1151 ]. Since the habitual offender law is constitutional in its entirety, the minimum sentences it imposes upon recidivists are also presumed to be constitutional. State v. Johnson, XXXX-XXXX (La.3/4/98), 709 So.2d 672 ; State v. Gay, 34,371 (La. App.2d Cir.4/4/01), 784 So.2d 714 . The courts have held that the burden is on Defendant to rebut the presumption that a mandatory minimum sentence is constitutional. To do so, Defendant must clearly and convincingly show that he is exceptional, which in this context means that because of unusual circumstances this defendant is a victim of the legislature's failure to assign sentences that are meaningfully tailored to the culpability of the offender, the gravity of the offense, and the circumstances of the case. State v. Johnson, supra; State v. Gay, supra ; State v. Thomas, supra .”

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