Kelly v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““While great latitude is allowed in the argument of counsel, at the same time these arguments must he based upon the testimony introduced in the case. The portion of the above-quoted argument was highly prejudicial to the accused. All of it was improper. It was not an argument to convict the defendant upon the testimony, but rather an appeal to the prejudice of the jury to convict him on general principles. There was no testimony whatever introduced to show that the accused was a man with a bad reputation for peace and violence; yet the district attorney in this argument characterizes him as ‘a mean negro — a bad negro.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Harwell v. State