State v. Munoz’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A witness that has been accorded use immunity and that is subsequently prosecuted for offenses revealed during such immunized testimony “is not dependent for the preservation of his rights upon the integrity and good faith of the prosecuting authorities.” [Kastigar, 406 U.S. at 460 , 92 S.Ct. at 1665 .] Kastigar requires that a defendant only show that he has testified under a grant of immunity. The prosecuting authorities then “have the burden of showing that their evidence is not tainted [by exposure to prior immunized testimony] by establishing that they had an independent, legitimate source for the disputed evidence.” Id. (quoting [Murphy, 378 U.S. at 79 n. 18, 84 S.Ct. at 1609 n. 18]). It is not enough that the prosecuting authorities simply negate the existence of taint in order to meet this burden. Instead, the prosecution has “the affirmative duty to prove that the evidence it proposes to use is derived from a legitimate source wholly independent of the compelled testimony.” Id.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Vallejos

2. ““[I]t is the government’s heavy burden to prove the negative in [these] case[s]; i.e., that none of its evidence suffers from taint. The government might find this to be an unreasonable or impossible burden. The government must however recognize that it, in its sole discretion, determines to whom it will grant immunity in order to convict others. The government must recognize that where it grants immunity, it runs the grave risk that any future prosecution of such an immunized witness for past or continuing crimes may, as á practical matter, be impossible----””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Vallejos