People v. . Fox’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “‘ ‘ It frequently happens that the testimony is of such a character as to require the court to submit the question to the jury, to be rejected by them altogether or given such weight as under all the circumstances the jury may deem proper to give to the alleged confession. But when, as in this case, a written confession of guilt is offered against a person on trial for a criminal offense, and he objects to the same and offers to prove to the court that it was procured from him by threats, or promises, or under such circumstances as would render it incompetent as evidence, it is error to receive the paper without first hearing the proof offered and deciding upon the competency of the confession as evidence against the party making it. (Commonwealth v. Culver, 126 Mass. 464 .) ‘ ‘ When the paper in question was read to the jury, under the sanction of the court, without first hearing what the defendant had to allege against its competency, he was to that extent denied a fair trial, though the paper was received conditionally with the understanding that it should be stricken out of the case if it afterwards was shown to be incompetent.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. People v. Tuomey