155 Mich. App. 478 - People v. Betts’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The issue in this case arises as a result of the trial court's indicating, after the testimony had been presented by both parties, that it wanted to question a witness, Anita Turner, who had earlier been waived by the parties but who had been listed as a res gestae witness. The court allowed the prosecutor to reopen the case because there were two conflicting versions of the testimony and the court did not know what to believe. The case was continued for a few days to allow the witness to be brought in.... ... The people argue that, under MRE 614, a trial judge is permitted to call and interrogate witnesses. Plaintiff also notes that a trial judge may examine witnesses and call witnesses not called by either party. We have been unable to find any discussion under MRE 614 relative to the issue in this case, and most of the discussion seems to be dealt with under FRE 614, which is identical to MRE 614. See 3 Orfield, Criminal Procedure Under the Federal Rules, § 26:167, p 462, which states: Some American cases have suggested that in some cases the judge in the interest of justice, may have a duty as well as the power to call witnesses, and may be reversed if he fails to do so. But the federal appellate courts have been unwilling to reverse on this ground. They hold that the exercise of the right to call a court's witness is a discretionary matter and that only for an abuse of that discretion resulting in prejudice to the defendant will a trial court be adjudged to be in error a”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. MJ v. Com.