State v. Sosa’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 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 36 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “least likely to find [fundamental] error where the defense has opened the door to the prosecutor's comments by its own argument or reference to facts not in evidence.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Storey · State v. Sena

2. “[cjoming at the end of trial, and often after jury instructions, [closing argument] is the last thing the jury hears before retiring to deliberate, and therefore has considerable potential to influence how the jury weighs the evidence. At the same time, closing argument, and rebuttal argument in particular, is necessarily responsive and extemporaneous, not always capable of the precision that goes into prepared remarks.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Torres

3. “[T]he common thread running through the cases finding reversible error is that the prosecutors' comments materially altered the trial or likely confused the jury by distorting the evidence, and thereby deprived the accused of a fair trial.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Sena