State v. Taylor’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 46 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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““We consider now appellant’s contention that Taylor was a frightened, ignorant child subjected to vigorous questioning and badgering by experienced police officers over a period of seven hours without sleep or food. Taylor’s own testimony indicates that he rose from his bed at 4:00 p. m. on the 19th of December, 1970, only some seven hours prior to the discovery of the fire. Our previous recital indicates that the questioning was long (almost seven hours) and eight police officers and a fire department official at one time or another talked to and interrogated the appellant. However, we are impressed by the fact that despite this alleged overwhelming atmosphere, the appellant never confessed to anything. He continued through an ever-changing pattern of fabrications to protest his innocence, and ultimately volunteered to take a lie detector test. In fact, the inconsistencies which pervaded Taylor’s statements up to the time Officer Adams read him his Miranda rights were of greater significance than subsequent statements. The lack of food and sleep arguments are not borne out by the facts. “We find ourselves in the same position as was the California Supreme Court in People v. Lara, supra, [67 Cal.2d 365, 62 Cal.Rptr. 586 , 432 P.2d 202 ], which found on the 'basis of all the testimony that the defendant had the capacity to understand his rights and the effect of a waiver of those rights. “Our examination of the record convinces us that Taylor’s statements were voluntarily made”

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