State v. Ward’s Empirical Analysis
1921
Citation profile
12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently May 2024
12 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"Crime is ordinarily proved by circumstantial evidence. Truth is the reliance of innocence. Falsehood is the resort of crime. All true facts are consistent with each other. If the prisoner was innocent, there was no reason for the withholding a true fact. Still less was there for uttering a falsehood. Falsehood is evidence of crime. Every falsehood uttered by way of exculpation becomes an article of circumstantial evidence of greater or less inculpatory force."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. De Bery · State v. DeBery“"the testimony of the respondent can be regarded as of very little value except as it is corroborated by circumstances, probabilities, and other evidence which tend to give it probative force. When the respondent takes the stand in his own behalf, however guilty he may be, he always denies the truth of the offense with which he is charged and asserts his innocence. Otherwise there would be no trial."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. De Bery · State v. DeBery“"When a person is in custodia legis charged with the commission of a criminal offense, a false statement by him as to a material circumstance is taken heavily against him."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. De Bery · State v. DeBery
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.