State v. Priest’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ . . . It is not the rule that every inadvertent or irresponsive answer of a witness will work a new trial. The law presumes, and must presume, that the jury finds the facts from the evidence the court permits them to consider. Any other rule would render the administration of the law impractical. The state in criminal trials cannot choose its witnesses. It must call those who have knowledge of the facts, whether they be wilfully designing or stupidly ignorant, and if new trials were granted because of their irresponsive answers, the administration of the criminal laws would become so burdensome as to deny to the state the protection afforded by such laws. Again, as we have said on other occasions, to maintain a contrary rule is to impeach the intelligence of the jury; it is to say that they will return a verdict on evidence which the court tells them they must not consider — a verdict they would not have returned had the inadmissible evidence been kept entirely from their knowledge.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 60 Wash. 2d 21 - State v. Johnson

2. ““Want of complaint, if the offense itself be established, no more tends to exculpate him [the defendant] than it tends to exculpate every other person.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 20 Wash. 2d 443 - State v. Davis