State v. Clay’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[S]ome cases will inevitably present close factual questions on which twelve people cannot agree. Where such is the case the unanimous verdict requirement and the ultimate acceptance of the jury's failure to reach accord protect the accused from conviction on the basis of evidence so close as to permit ... real and reasonable differences of opinion. In our system this is a desirable result. Despite the fact that each trial which ends in a hung jury may appear to be an exercise in futility and may create understandable judicial frustration, it should be remembered that a hung jury is only undesirable where the hanging jurors simply refuse to join in conscientious collective deliberations in an honest effort to reach a verdict.”

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

2. “The time frames also depict another source of undue pressure on the jury — fatigue. When the jurors finally rendered a verdict, they had been in court more than twenty-one hours and they had gone without sleep for an even longer period. Such prolonged deprivation of a basic human need impugnes the judicial process and erodes confidence in the reliability of the jury's decision. Common sense indicates that as the night wore on, and as morning arrived, the jurors' capacity to make sound individual judgments and then to participate meaningfully in a collegial decision must have decreased. At the same time their motivation to "get it over with" must have increased.”

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

3. “112 Idaho at 263, 731 P.2d at 806 . [2] The Court continued: The opportunity to exert such pressure is presented when a jury, after long deliberation, reports a deadlock. During the nineteenth century, a deadlocked jury was regarded by some courts as an evil to be combatted by psychological or even physical coercion. Id. See also Note, Deadlocked Juries and Dynamite: A Critical Look at the”

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