State v. Gruber’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

41 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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The United States Supreme Court has noted that “extrinsic acts evidence may be critical to the establishment of the truth as to a disputed issue, especially when that issue involves the actor’s state of mind and the only means of ascertaining that mental state is by drawing inferences from conduct.” Because of the critical nature of such evidence, courts have noted that while evidence of a prior offense or bad act is always prejudicial, the “prejudice is frequently outweighed by the relevancy of the evidence when a defendant’s knowledge or intent is a contested issue in the case.””

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

2. ““three-pronged test to determine the admissibility of prior offense or bad act evidence under Rule of Evidence 404(b). . . . ‘LT]he decision to admit such evidence lies within the sound discretion of the trial court upon a determination that the evidence is relevant for a purpose other than character or disposition, that there is clear proof that the defendant committed the prior offenses,’ . . . and that the prejudice to the defendant does not substantially outweigh the probative value of the evidence . . . .””

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