State v. Cauthern’s Empirical Analysis
1998
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 43 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently September 2015 · most notably James David Carter v. Ricky Bell, Warden Paul Summers, Attorney General (2000), Realty Shop, Inc. v. RR Westminster Holding, Inc. (1999)
3 federal appellate · 43 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Chapman v. State of California · Gregg v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Wainwright v. Witt · Darden v. Wainwright
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 48 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“James Phillip Andrew testified [at both trials] that he was with the defendant, Ronnie Cauthern, and Brett Patterson shortly after the offenses. While watching television, they all saw an account of the Smiths’ murders in which a reward was offered for information. Cauthern told Andrew that he had worked for the Smiths in the past and that he broke into their home and made the wtíihan get into the closet, while he and Patterson strangled the man. Cauthern told Andrew that he raped the woman once and that he had stolen a wedding ring, a VCR, and some credit cards.... Joe Denning, Andrew’s roommate, also testified that Ronnie Cauthern admitted his role in the killings. Cauthern told Denning that he had cut the telephone lines to the house, had broken in through the back door, had shined flashlights in the victims’ faces in order to wake them, and had placed Rosemary Smith in a closet. He admitted to Den-ning that he had raped the woman and poured wine coolers over her, and then attempted to kill her. He said he tried to strangle the woman by tying a scarf around her neck, but did not have the strength to kill her, so he used the vase to create a tourniquet.... Cauthern’s former girlfriend, Jackie Pi-gue, testified that on Thursday night, January 8, 1987, Cauthern and Patterson were “solemn” and “quiet.” The next day Cauthern gave her a watch and a wedding ring. He told her that someone owed him money and he was holding the items as collateral. When she later saw a news report r”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“... The body of Rosemary Smith was discovered in another bedroom; her underclothes were next to her body and her nightgown was in the corner of the room. A scarf had been tied around her neck and knotted, with a small vase inserted between the nape of the neck and the knot, creating a tourniquet. ... Credit cards, electronic gear and a videocassette recorder appeared to be missing from the house. Police found costume jewelry in the house, but no jewelry of value.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“(1) the conduct complained of, viewed in light of the facts and circumstances of the case; (2) the curative measures undertaken by the court and the prosecution; (3) the intent of the prosecutor in making the improper statement; (4) the cumulative effect of the improper conduct and any other errors in the record; and (5) the relative strength or weakness of the case.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Jordan · Brimmer v. State
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.