Davidson v. Watts & Flint’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 8 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The offense of which the witness admitted he had been convicted was not only a felony but was of that character which men generally are not found to commit unless when so depraved as to render it extremely probable that he will not speak the truth. There are some felonious offenses which do not involve the perpetrator’s character for truth, but this cannot be said of grand larceny .... While § 3 898 has removed that disability as to the witness in question, evidence of such conviction was proper to go to the jury. It may be hard in many cases for a witness living an upright life to have his past misconduct brought before a jury, but there are other considerations affecting other persons which warrant this being done.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Palesis v. Hlouverakis

2. “[A]s all treasons and almost all felonies were punishable with death, it was very natural that crimes deemed to be of so grave a character as to render the offender unworthy to live should be considered as rendering him unworthy of belief in a court of justice. Whether or not an offense is infamous, it seems, is to be determined by the character of the crime and not by its punishment.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 3 Va. App. 89 - Chrisman v. Commonwealth