State v. Gibbs’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “' “The defendant, T. J. (Jack) Gibbs, was convicted of stealing domestic fowls in the night-time. (Crimes Act, §§ 78, 79, Gen. Stat. 1915, §§ 3448, 3449.) His main grievance here relates to the overruling of his demurrer and motion for a directed verdict— “ ‘For the reason that the facts proved fail to state any facts as against this defendant that would authorize a judgment for conviction. They don’t connect this defendant anywhere with the chicken stealing at all.’ “This demurrer and motion was filed at the conclusion of the introduction of the state’s evidence in chief. It may be conceded that up to that point the state had not completely made out a prima facie case against this defendant, and if he had stood on that ruling, and had introduced no evidence in his own defense, the jury would have been bound to acquit him for want of proof (Crim. Code, § 228, Gen. Stat. 1915, § 8149); otherwise this court would order his discharge. But the defendant did not stand on that ruling; evidence was introduced for the defense; and on rebuttal, a codefendant took the witness stand and candidly told of the various thefts of poultry by the defendant and the witness and another person. This evidence made a hopeless predicament for the defendant, and his conviction followed as a matter of course.””

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