Coulter v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The defendant was a witness for himself, and on cross-examination the prosecuting attorney asked him if he had not been convicted for killing his brother. Counsel for defendant objected to this question, and the court stated that it was proper to ask him as a witness if he was convicted as a matter affecting his credibility. Counsel for defendant remarked that, if the defendant did kill his brother, he was justifiable, and the court then remarked to counsel for defendant, “You know, Judge Steel, he was not justifiable.” The defendant excepted to this remark of the court, and the court said: “I did not mean that, I meant it would not be competent to go into that question here in this trial at all. It is competent to ask him if he had been convicted of a felony. You can ask him how long he has been living over there; but, as to how long he stayed in the penitentiary, that is not material.” At the request of the defendant, the court instructed the jury as follows: “You will not consider the fact that defendant has previously been convicted of a crime as in any manner establishing his guilt of the crime charged; but it may be considered only as it may affect his credibility.” Under these circumstances, we do not think that the remarks made by the court were prejudicial to the rights of the defendant.”

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