State v. Thompson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A trial court has great discretion in determining whether to grant a new trial. Its decision is presumed to be correct and will be reversed on appeal only for an abuse of discretion. In order for the trial court to grant a motion for new trial, the error complained of as a basis for the motion must be prejudicial to the party seeking the new trial. The complaining party must show that some trial error or misconduct of the prevailing party was responsible for prejudicing the jury.”

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

2. “Neutral and generic responses about being guided by the evidence presented and to follow the instructions previously given are therefore not only the safest but the most favored.”

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

3. “[T]he response to a jury question is within the trial court's sound discretion, and the practice of exchanging communications between the judge and jury is not recommended.”

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