Ervin v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

95 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 95 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"The inquiry is whether the Legislature intended to permit multiple punishments. The Blockburger test is a useful tool for ascertaining legislative intent, but it is not the only tool. Other (nonexclusive) considerations relevant to determining whether the Legislature intended multiple punishments are: whether the offenses provisions are contained within the same statutory section, whether the offenses are phrased in the alternative, whether the offenses are named similarly, whether the offenses have common punishment ranges, whether the offenses have a common focus (i.e. whether the 'gravamen' of the offense is the same) and whether that common focus tends to indicate a single instance of conduct, whether the elements that differ between the offenses can be considered the 'same' under an imputed theory of liability which would result in the offenses being considered the same under Blockburger (i.e. a liberalized Blockburger standard utilizing imputed elements), and whether there is legislative history containing an articulation of an intent to treat the offenses as the same or different for double jeopardy purposes."”

   14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Jared Tyrell Stinecipher v. State · Christopher Garfias v. State

2. “Finally, manslaughter and intoxication manslaughter have a common focus: the death of an individual. Both crimes are result of conduct crimes with death being the result. Because a person can die only once, two result-of-conduct homicide offenses involving the same victim must necessarily involve the same result. Given that the result is the focus of these offenses, the sameness of the result is some indication that the Legislature did not intend to impose multiple punishments.”

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

3. “Felony murder and intentional murder may be considered as separate offenses under the Blockburger test because felony murder requires proof of a felony, which intentional murder does not, and intentional murder requires proof of intent, which felony murder does not. However, it is clear that the Legislature intended that both constitute murder, a single offense carrying a single sentence.”

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