State v. Barry A.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is well established that [a] prosecutor may not appeal to the emotions, passions and prejudices of the jurors.... [S]uch appeals should be avoided because they have the effect of diverting the [jurors'] attention from their duty to decide the case on the evidence.... When the prosecutor appeals to emotions, he invites the jury to decide the case, not according to a rational appraisal of the evidence, but on the basis of powerful and irrelevant factors which are likely to skew that appraisal.... [I]n deciding cases [however] ... [j]urors are not expected to lay aside matters of common knowledge or their own observations and experiences, but rather, to apply them to the facts as presented to arrive at an intelligent and correct conclusion.... Therefore, it is entirely proper for counsel to appeal to [the jurors'] common sense in closing remarks.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 188 Conn. App. 813 - State v. Simmons

2. “[T]he defendant's failure to object at trial to each of the occurrences that he now raises as instances of prosecutorial impropriety, though relevant to our inquiry, is not fatal to review of his claims.... This does not mean, however, that the absence of an objection at trial does not play a significant role in the determination of whether the challenged statements were, in fact, improper.... To the contrary, we continue to adhere to the well established maxim that defense counsel's failure to object to the prosecutor's argument when it was made suggests that defense counsel did not believe that it was [improper] in light of the record of the case at the time.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 175 Conn. App. 807 - Salters v. Commissioner of Correction

3. “[a] prosecutor, in fulfilling his duties, must confine himself to the evidence in the record.... [T]he privilege of counsel in addressing the jury ... must never be used as a license to state, or to comment upon, or even to suggest an inference from, facts not in evidence, or to present matters which the jury [has] no right to consider.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 188 Conn. App. 813 - State v. Simmons