155 Md. App. 181 - Riggins v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Notwithstanding the absence of physical evidence in this case to establish the corpus delicti of the crime, the circumstantial evidence established that: the victim was close to her family, most especially her daughter; the victim had not been heard from in five years, despite an exhaustive record and document search in addition to national media awareness of the disappearance; the victim was aware of appellant’s ongoing affair with Cole; the victim had stated that she was going to report the affair to the police; the victim was going to leave appellant; prior to the victim’s disappearance, appellant had asked co-workers about killing a person and disposing of the body; appellant had asked friends about obtaining a gun; appellant had stated to Cole that “he wanted to kill [the victim],” stating that he would either “shoot” or “strangle her,” and “put her body in the truck with the waste,” where “nobody would ever find her”; appellant stated that the victim “wasn’t coming back”; and appellant had conspired to fabricate an alibi. Moreover, on the night of the victim’s disappearance, the evidence indicated that appellant left work early to meet with Cole. Cole then observed appellant go to his house. There was clearly sufficient independent evidence that the victim had been murdered to corroborate appellant’s confession to David Marshall.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 205 Md. App. 334 - TETSO v. State

2. “In a homicide case the proof of the corpus delicti is sufficient if it establishes the fact that the person for whose death the prosecution was instituted is dead, and that the death occurred under circumstances which indicate that it was caused criminally by someone. The State may establish the corpus delicti by either direct or circumstantial evidence. The corpus delicti of the crime of murder is ordinarily established through the presence of the victim’s body and by direct evidence establishing that death resulted from criminal activity. Although it is certainly more difficult to establish the corpus delicti of homicide when the victim’s body is missing, it is not impossible.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 205 Md. App. 334 - TETSO v. State