State v. Floyd’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 57 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 61 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The jury could reasonably have found the following facts. In the early morning of October 1, 1983, a fire was discovered in the back seat of a car parked in a lot on Mansfield Street, New Haven. The fire appeared to have been burning only a short time prior to its discovery. The car had no license plates, its left front tire was flat and there was fresh damage to the front bumper and hood. The automobile was registered in the name of Robert Gattison but was being used with his permission by his sister, Sherry Gattison, the live-in companion of the defendant [Floyd]. There were no signs of forced entry and it appeared that the car had been started with a key. The complainant, Sherry Gattison, had not given the defendant permission to drive the ear. The defendant and the complainant were in the midst of breaking-up, and the defendant was planning to vacate the couple’s shared residence. The complainant had parked her brother’s car in front of the couple’s apartment at 6 p.m. the prior evening, entered the apartment, and taken a nap. The defendant came home some two hours later, soon departed and returned at approximately 1:30 a.m. on October 1. At that time, the defendant told the complainant that he had taken the car and driven it into a tree and then had set the car afire and contemplated committing suicide in the flaming car. At approximately 3 a.m., the complainant received a telephone call from her mother who stated that the police found the vehicle in a parking lot. The c”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Floyd v. Meachum

2. “I ask you to remember that your responsibility as jurors serving the Judicial Department of the State of Connecticut is to make sure that the Fifth Amendment burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not an unwitting protection for the guilty.... The entire people of the State of Connecticut ask you to look through the confusion. The entire people of the State of Connecticut ask you to decide who is a liar, and this one citizen of the State of Connecticut asks you to decide who was telling the truth and who wasn’t telling the truth. ... If, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you believe I’ve been unethical, then I won’t even ask you to do your job.... [I]f there was confusion in this case, from whence did it come? If there were facts left out in this case, from whence did that come? ... [Y]ou know that there is only one person in the world who lied up and down in every sentence he spoke about this case to the police and to fire officials. There’s only one person who lied in every word they said. Ladies and gentlemen, that is this defendant, Robert Floyd. And as a representative of the people of the State of Connecticut, I ask that when you retire to that jury deliberating room, that you not let that Fifth Amendment burden of proof be anything more than it is because the Fifth Amendment burden of proof is a protection for the innocent and is not a shield to protect the guilty.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Floyd v. Meachum

3. “The defense relies on the Fifth Amendment presumption of innocence and on the Fifth Amendment burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt in their argument to you. Ladies and gentlemen, as I said ... I am here as an Assistant State’s Attorney who represents the people of the State of Connecticut and whose responsibility it is to attempt to see that justice is done. And, ladies and gentlemen, the Fifth Amendment burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a protection for the innocent. As much as it is your responsibility to use and apply the Fifth Amendment burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard to protect the innocent, it is your concomitant responsibility not to allow the Fifth Amendment burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt to be a shield for the guilty. Ladies and gentlemen, your responsibilities are equal on both sides. The burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a shield for the innocent. It is not a barrier to conviction for the guilty.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Floyd v. Meachum