State v. Ellerson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

74 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 74 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(a) General Rule. For the purpose of attacking the credibility of a witness, evidence that he has been convicted of crime shall be admitted if elicited from him or established by public record, if the court determines that the probative value of admitting this evidence outweighs its prejudicial effect, and if the crime (1) was punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year under the law under which he was convicted or (2) involved dishonesty or false statement, regardless of the punishment.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Whitney · State v. Noble

2. ““It pushes the doctrine of waiver beyond its usual criminal-law application to say that a defendant responding to an erroneous ruling by the trial court by remaining silent has waived his right to testify. And waiver becomes even less convincing if we say that by remaining silent under the constraint of an erroneous ruling on a point of law the defendant has waived his right to challenge that ruling on appeal.” United States v. Cook, 608 F.2d 1175 (9th Cir. 1979). We then stated in Ellerson, supra: “We agree with the Ninth Circuit that a party should not necessarily lose his right to appeal a ruling because he alters his strategy in response to a trial court’s finding against him. We hold that the defendant may raise on appeal the ruling of the trial judge denying defendant’s motion to exclude evidence of the prior conviction for burglary.” At 251, 609 P.2d at 66.”

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

3. “The better procedure would be for the court before evidence of a prior criminal conviction is admitted for impeachment purposes, to “make an on-the-record finding based on specific facts and circumstances that the probative value of the evidence substantially outweighs the danger of unfair prejudice.” United States v. Mahler, 579 F.2d 730, 734 (2d Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 991 , 99 S.Ct. 592 , 58 L.Ed.2d 666 , reh. denied, 439 U.S. 1104 , 99 S.Ct. 885 , 59 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979).”

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