Ervin v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “While I agree with the majority that the giving of the “flight instruction” was proper, based on the facts and circumstances of this particular case, and the applicable case law, the use of the flight instruction in this state can be described in one word — “dangerous.” In my years of experience as a trial judge, the flight instruction was very seldom requested by the prosecution and almost never given. It simply is not needed. While evidence of flight might be relevant, no legitimate purpose is served by the jury receiving an instruction from the trial court (which heightens the importance of the evidence in the eyes of the jury) highlighting for the jury the fact that the jury can consider evidence of flight as “a circumstance of guilt or guilty knowledge” when “that flight is unexplained and somehow probative of guilt or guilty knowledge.” The term “unexplained flight” is somewhat nebulous, anyway, and a trial court, by giving a flight instruction, simply puts itself in a position of possibly placing reversible error in an otherwise clean record. If a trial court persists in giving a flight instruction, I suggest that it do so with great caution.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Vance Drummer v. State of Mississippi

2. “Charles’s theory of the case was that his brother committed the armed robbery and then pointed police to Charles. The State argued that Charles aptly presented his theory of the defense because he questioned witnesses about the fact that “Ray Ray” was identified as the robber, and Michael was “Ray Ray.” Such questioning is not the same as evidence that Michael gave police Charles’s social security number and birthday as his own. Such evidence could have affected the jury’s understanding about Michael lying to the police and pointing the police to Charles. [] Charles was precluded from putting on such evidence, and evidence that Ray Ray was identified is not of the same vein. “The exclusion of the evidence prevented [Charles] from fully presenting his theory of the case to the jury and thus adversely affected his right to a fair trial.” We therefore reverse Charles’s convictions on this basis.”

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

3. “Mississippi Rule of Evidence 612 allows a witness to use documents to refresh his memory while testifying. [M.R.E.] 612. A document used to refresh a witness's recollection need not be admissible under the Mississippi Rules of Evidence. Hunt v. State , 687 So.2d 1154 , 1162 (Miss.1996). "The only requirement is that the witness have no present memory of the event." Id. When defense counsel asked Stevenson "Do you have a recollection of that?" he responded "No." Thus, the State's argument that the defense could not use these documents to refresh Stevenson's memory on cross-examination because they were not admissible is without merit.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 270 So. 3d 1105 - Anthony Ray Abram v. State of Mississippi