968 So. 2d 247 - State v. Bailey’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A sentence which falls within the statutory limits may be excessive under certain circumstances. To constitute an excessive sentence, this Court must find that the penalty is so grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime as to shock our sense of justice or that the sentence makes no reasonable contribution to acceptable penal goals and[,] therefore, is nothing more than the needless imposition of pain and suffering. The trial judge has broad discretion, and a reviewing court may not set sentences aside absent a manifest abuse of discretion.”

   9 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 36 So. 3d 1086 - State v. Chandler · 38 So. 3d 1102 - State v. Quinn

2. “You pled guilty of [sic] the crime of attempted manslaughter, which normally carries with it a possible sentence of imprisonment, at hard labor with the Department of Corrections, for not more than twenty (20) years. The Pre-Sentence Investigation indicates that you’re sixty-five (65) years of age, born on March the 20th, 1947. You’re currently divorced, having been married once to Lucinda Gaspard in 1971. You have four (4) children from this marriage. You were divorced in 2011. You attended school in Lake Arthur, Louisiana, and you graduated from high school in 1966. After graduating, you joined the United States Navy; however, you were later discharged due to health problems. Prior to your arrest, you were employed in the construction field, and you retired from the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board for whom you worked as a maintenance supervisor for twenty-two (22) years. The Pre-Sentence Investigation states that you do not have a juvenile criminal history. You have another arrest for false imprisonment with a weapon to which you pled guilty on October 17th, 2011. The sentencing of false imprisonment is also set for today. According to the Pre-Sentence Investigation, on August the 12th of 2009, Lake Arthur police officers were dispatched to a home in Lake Arthur after a witness reported that you were beating your wife and had a gun in your possession. When the police arrived, witnesses advised them that you had left to get another gun because your gun had misfired. The ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 118 So. 3d 22 - State v. Monceaux

3. “In State v. Lanieu, [ 98-1260 (La.App. 1 Cir. 4/1/99) , 734 So.2d 89 , writ denied, 99-1259 (La.10/8/99), 750 So.2d 962 ,] the defendant was charged with second degree murder and, convicted of manslaughter. The defendant was sentenced to forty years at hard labor. In Lanieu, the defendant shot the victim in the head twice after an argument wherein the men cursed at each other in front of the defendant’s home. After the shooting, the defendant drove off in the victim’s car and dumped the victim’s body in a field. The defendant claimed that prior to the shooting he saw the victim reach down in the car and saw the handle of what appeared to be a gun; however, two witnesses provided that they did not see the victim with a gun on that day. At sentencing, the trial court noted that the defendant was a nineteen-year-old first felony offender with no adult criminal history. The PSI noted that the defendant had been arrested for attempted second degree murder, but that the grand jury pretermitted the case. The First Circuit concluded that the sentence imposed was not grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 161 So. 3d 18 - State v. Weldon