Ransey v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The bias of a witness is always relevant to the factfinder’s assessment of credibility.... A criminal defendant is entitled to cross-examine a witness to expose any facts which might lay a foundation for an inference that the witness’ testimony is influenced by bias or prejudice. ‘Where [the] purpose [of cross-examination] is to expose bias ... [the] examiner must be permitted to elicit any facts which might color a witness’ testimony,’ and the trial court’s usual discretion to control the scope of cross-examination on the question of bias infringes upon the accused’s sixth amendment right of confrontation.... Whether a witness harbors a bias against a class of which the defendant is a member, or against individuals solely because of that class membership, is a relevant question that must be subject to defense cross-examination in a criminal trial. The defendant is constitutionally entitled to confront a witness and conduct cross-examination sufficient to elicit any facts that might support an inference of bias against the class to which the defendant belongs or its member-(citations omitted)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 654 So. 2d 793 - Nash v. Collins