Sorrells v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1922
Citation profile
18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently May 2009
18 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.
Relationships
Relies on Algheri v. State · Hogan v. State · Byrd v. City of Hazlehurst · Jackson v. State
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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Is always insufficient where, assuming all to be proved which the evidence tends to prove, some other hypothesis may still be true, for it is the actual exclusion of every other hypothesis which invests mere circumstances with the force of truth. Whenever, therefore, the evidence leaves it indifferent, which of several hypotheses is true, or merely establishes some finite probability in favor of one hypothesis rather than another, such evidence cannot amount to proof, however great the probability may be.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““. . . The facts may raise a suspicion; ‘but the wisdom of the law is such that it refuses to allow any person to be punished for a crime, however strong and well-founded may be the suspicion.’ There must be proof.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Walker v. State
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.