Durant v. People’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 11 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The defendant was not charged with larceny of the goods, and her possession could not be used as evidence tending to show that she had stolen them. Her possession must be regarded as innocent, unless shown to have been received with knowledge that they were stolen, or under circumstances which would satisfy the jury that she believed them to be stolen. Possession itself, without evidence tending to show such guilty knowledge, could have no tendency to establish her guilt. She did not, in fact, undertake to deny the possession, but admitting it, claimed she had come to the possession innocently, without notice that the goods were stolen. In the aspect the case had assumed when this question was proposed to the witness, guilty knowledge was practically the only question in dispute. But independent of the particular aspect the case had assumed upon the evidence, we think, in all prosecutions for this offense, it must, upon principle, be competent alike both for the prosecution and the defense to show what were the actual circumstances, the arrangement or understanding under which the goods were received by the defendant, whether the effect shall be to establish guilt or innocence. This is the res gestse, the very essence of the inquiry.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Kasle v. United States