People v. McLaughlin

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that territorial jurisdiction must be proved by the State to the trier of fact beyond a reasonable doubt and citing to twenty-two jurisdictions that hold likewise
• stating that venue refers to the proper county or place of trial and that the territorial jurisdiction which “goes to the very essence of the [s]tate’s power to prosecute”
• stating that territorial jurisdiction “is a question of the sovereign’s power to prosecute and punish an accused for conduct which is allegedly criminal,” “goes to the very essence of the State’s power to prosecute,” and therefore “may never be waived”
• “[F]or the State to have criminal jurisdiction, either the alleged conduct or some consequence of it must have occurred within the State.”
• “If State territorial jurisdiction is put in issue during ... trial, the trial court should charge the jury that jurisdiction must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
• basis of New York’s jurisdiction in criminal cases is territorial principle derived from common law; general rule is that state has jurisdiction if either alleged conduct or some consequence of it occurred within state

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

63 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

• Carvajal v. Artus
  Second Circuit· 2011-01-25· cited 144×
• People v. Gayheart
  Michigan Court of Appeals· 2009-07-30· cited 140×
• Richardson v. Richardson
  Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York· 2010-11-03· cited 105×
• State v. Willoughby
  Arizona Supreme Court· 1995-03-23· cited 86×
• Bierenbaum v. Graham
  Second Circuit· 2010-05-25· cited 83×
• State v. Denofa
  Supreme Court of New Jersey· 2006-06-05· cited 83×
• People v. Betts
  California Supreme Court· 2005-01-13· cited 70×
• People v. Johnson
  New York Court of Appeals· 2025-11-24· cited 68×
• Torres v. State
  Tex. App. Ct., 8th Dist. (El Paso)· 2004-04-08· cited 54×
• People v. Greenberg
  New York Court of Appeals· 1997-03-25· cited 54×
• People v. Carvajal
  New York Court of Appeals· 2005-11-22· cited 47×
• State v. Dennis
  West Virginia Supreme Court· 2004-12-01· cited 44×
• People v. Stokes
  New York Court of Appeals· 1996-10-10· cited 40×
• State v. Jackson
  Court of Appeals of Arizona· 2004-05-28· cited 38×
• State v. Butler
  Court of Appeals of Maryland· 1999-02-19· cited 32×
• People v. White
  Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York· 2013-03-28· cited 28×
• People v. Patterson
  Criminal Court of the City of New York· 2000-04-25· cited 25×
• Estrada v. State
  Tex. App. Ct., 8th Dist. (El Paso)· 2004-08-26· cited 18×
• People v. Cornell
  Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York· 2005-04-29· cited 18×
• People v. Watts
  Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York· 2023-07-28· cited 16×