State v. Wrighter’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Even if we assume, however, that the testimony at issue was probative to show context, it was nonetheless highly prejudicial and properly excludable under Rule 403. The real danger of admitting the past transactions in situations such as the one here is that, if the jury believed the informant’s testimony about prior rock cocaine transactions with Defendant, the jury would conclude that Defendant sold rock cocaine in the past, and if he did so then, it is more likely he did so now.... The evidence admitted here is precisely the kind of evidence that should not be allowed under either rule 404(B) or Rule 403 for the very reason that the perception of propensity and actual prejudice is unavoidable. To state it differently, the rule was intended to bar the exact thing that the State attempted to do hei’e — insinuate that Defendant sold cocaine to Spense on the day in question because he had done so in the past.”

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