108 N.C. App. 315 - State v. Smothers’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “the information supplied by the informant established that he had been in defendant’s residence during the previous seventy-two hours and that he had personally observed a box containing “a bunch” of small bags of white powder and . . . had personally observed defendant and others using cocaine by heating it and then snorting it through a straw[.] . . . The informant stated that he had personal knowledge of the appearance of cocaine and marijuana because a relative previously used these drugs. In addition . . . the affiant, Lieutenant Anderson, personally spoke with a second individual who . . . verified that the informant entered defendant’s residence . . . [and that the] informant stated to him that he had seen cocaine and marijuana in the residence and had been offered cocaine by defendant. . . . Lieutenant Anderson verified that defendant resides at the home in question by checking the address listed with the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles on defendant’s driver’s license. Further, the affidavit recites that the officer has received information in the past from other citizens living near defendant’s residence concerning an unusual amount of traffic going to and from defendant’s residence at all hours of the day and night.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 220 N.C. App. 1 - State v. Jackson

2. ““The task of the issuing magistrate is simply to make a practical, common sense decision whether, given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before him, including the ‘veracity’ and ‘basis of knowledge’ of persons supplying hearsay information, there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. And the duty of a reviewing court is simply to ensure that the magistrate had a ‘substantial basis for . . . conclud[ing]’ that probable cause existed.””

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