Grisette v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is appellant’s contention that the court’s statement to the jury that three defendants had entered nolo contend-ere pleas constituted harmful and prejudicial error as to the remaining defendants. It is argued that such statement had the effect of putting the jury on notice that since three of the defendants had pleaded guilty of the acts constituting the crime with which all were charged, the jury had no alternative but to convict the remaining defendants without regard to whether the evidence proved their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. With this contention we cannot agree. It would be equally reasonable to contend that since three of the defendants had confessed responsibility for the crime, the jury had no alternative but to find that the remaining defendants were innocent and should be acquitted. “The trial jury is an essential arm of the court charged with the responsibility of performing an important function in the administration of justice. In order that it accomplish its intended purpose, it should not be required to operate in a partial vacuum. As men of intelligence, the members of the jury are entitled to know within proper limits the significance of developments which occur during the trial so long as the information imparted to them does not harmfully prejudice the right of the parties to a fair trial. We do not perceive that the statement made by the trial judge as quoted above cast any suspicion of guilt upon the remaining defendants. It is our view that ”

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