State v. Lewis’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Relevant evidence means evidence having any tendency to make the existence of the fact that is material to the determination of the proceeding more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Conn. Code Evid. § 4-1. Relevant evidence is evidence that has a logical tendency to aid the trier in the determination of an issue.... One fact is relevant to another if in the common course of events the existence of one, alone or with other facts, renders the existence of the other either more certain or more probable.... Evidence is irrelevant or too remote if there is such a want of open and visible connection between the evidentiary and principal facts that, all things considered, the former is not worthy or safe to be admitted in the proof of the latter .... The trial court has wide discretion to determine the relevancy of evidence and [e]very reasonable presumption should be made in favor of the correctness of the court's ruling in determining whether there has been an abuse of discretion.... [A]buse of discretion exists when a court could have chosen different alternatives but has decided the matter so arbitrarily as to vitiate logic, or has decided it based on improper or irrelevant factors.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 180 Conn. App. 835 - State v. Bagnaschi

2. “No precise and universal test of relevancy is furnished by the law, and the question must be determined in each case according to reason and judicial experience.... The trial judge must consider many factors in ruling on relevancy.... In arriving at its conclusion, the trial court is in the best position to view the evidence in the context of the entire case, and we will not intervene unless there is a clear abuse of the court's discretion. On appeal, we are limited in our review to a determination of whether, under the circumstances of the case, in exercising its broad discretion, the trial court could legally act as it did, and not whether we, under the same circumstances, would make the same ruling.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 164 Conn. App. 530 - Spearman v. Commissioner of Correction

3. “Whether a victim has suffered serious physical injury is a question of fact for the jury. ... Although our case law ... does not require expert medical testimony to establish the element of serious physical injury, there must be sufficient direct or circumstantial evidence or a combination of both presented to the jury from which it may find such injury.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 172 Conn. App. 668 - State v. Petion